Kotor III: The Way of the Jedi
by Aer-ki Jyr
Summary: Four millenia after the Exile went to look for Revan...700 year old Luke Skywalker undergoes a long awaited transformation under the instruction of an Old Republic-trained Jedi just as a galaxy at peace begins to enter one of its darkest ages. EU Canon.
1. Chapter 1

Sitting in the center of the observation tower atop the Jedi temple, Luke Skywalker's mind drifted between the far reaches of the galaxy and the flurry of activity beneath him.

His body remained taught, his posture perfect, his breathing minimal, all the while his long white hair flitted in the warm forest wind that was gently meandering its way through the tower's open viewports.

He was calm and serene, as was typical of recent years. The nightmares of the past no longer haunted him. The galaxy was stable… more or less. He doubted it would ever be completely subdued, but it was much more so than in centuries past.

The Jedi now numbered in the thousands, with six temples spread across the galaxy. The eight major powers were currently at peace with one another and the likelihood of another war breaking out was minimal.

The galaxy was experiencing a golden age that had long been in the making. The Order had become self sufficient and no longer needed Luke's constant oversight. He still retained his leadership of the council, but maintained a freedom of movement and clarity of purpose that he hadn't dared even dream of in the past.

All was well…and had been so for many decades.

Far below, in the dense forest, a small group of cadets were running the trails with a Master on their heels keeping their pace honest. A few meters ahead on the trail a black and green clad figure stepped out of the brush and into their path. He allowed the cadets to pass by, but as the Master neared with a look of confusion on his face, the figure ignited a blue lightsaber…and slashed the Master across his chest.

The cadets turned in response to the sound of the lightsaber just in time to see the Master's body hit the ground and the assassin disappear back into the forest.

"Master Hij!" one of the cadets yelled as they ran back and gathered around the fallen Jedi.

"Master, can you hear me?" a young girl asked as she desperately shook her teacher's shoulder, to no avail.

"Turn him over," another cadet insisted as he looked for the Master's wound.

"No cut," he said in dismay. "His robes aren't even singed."

"He isn't dead?" the girl asked hopefully.

"I don't think so," the eldest cadet said as he felt for a pulse. "He's alive, just out cold."

"How is that possible? Whoever that was used a lightsaber."

The brown haired boy shook his head. "I don't…" he started to say as they heard the sounds of distant lightsaber combat echoing through the trees.

Ning-Ti got his lightsaber out just in time to block a blue slash at his head. He pushed it back as his apprentice circled around to his right and attacked the armor clad figure from behind with a low slash at its legs.

The attacker had come out of nowhere and already downed Hes and his apprentice by the time Ning's hand had gotten to his lightsaber's hilt. If he'd been a split second slower he would have been taken completely off guard.

His assailant sidestepped to Ning's left and flicked his blue blade down and caught the apprentice's attack near the tip of the blade. He effortlessly flicked it out of the way and planted his boot into his apprentice's robes and sent the youth flying five meters backward.

Ning jabbed forward as he caught a glimpse of more of his fellow Jedi spilling out of the temple towards the training grounds. If he could only hold on a few moments then they could…

Ning's arm suddenly went numb as the tip of the blue blade whipped around and caught his wrist. His lightsaber slipped from his hand but he never saw it hit the ground. A blue whirl swept across his vision, quickly followed by blackness.

By the time the attacker had added Ning's apprentice to his body count, six Jedi Masters and fourteen Knights had piled into the courtyard from various locations. Instead of waiting for them to come to him, he sprinted towards the nearest two and lashed out at them with a speed and intensity they could not match.

They started to step backward and fight defensively, but the blue blade moved too quick and accurate… and slipped through. The first Master went down with a touch to his ribs. The second fared better and sparred long enough for one of the Knights to join the fight before he was force-pulled forward and off balance into a backhanded jab that was flicked forward to intercept the Knight's green blade.

One, two, three parries and the blue blade struck the Knight's skull and dropped her to the ground. The attacker stepped backward as four Jedi came at him at once and tried to encircle him.

He reached down to his left hip and pulled out a second lightsaber. It ignited blue like its twin, then slashed sideways in a feint that caused one of the Jedi to flinch backward.

In that moment the attacker sprung the other direction and into the air overhead. He landed on the opposite side of two of the Jedi and stepped forward into their arcing blades.

He intercepted both simultaneously and braced against each as he kicked out at the Jedi on his right. The Jedi stumbled backward, and the attacker rotated…bringing his now free blade around behind him and into the other Jedi's exposed shoulder.

The Jedi dropped to the ground as his compatriots stood off for the moment, wondering who this man, or thing, was.

That was a mistake.

The attacker reached toward two of them and sent them flying backwards with a force-push that left him free to attack the remaining lone Jedi, two blades to one.

The outcome was the same for him as it would soon be for the others. The attacker would duck, dodge, parry, and evade until he could momentarily isolate the assembled Jedi and take them down one or two at a time.

That was, until Kas Mati appeared out of the temple doors and launched forward with unparalleled speed toward the fight.

When the Master closed to within ten meters he slowed and brandished his blue double-bladed lightsaber and took it to the attacker as the three remaining Jedi stepped back and gave their superior room to fight.

The attacker parried with both his blades against the double-blade, but was momentarily taken off guard by the force behind the Jedi's assaults. The armored attacker backtracked and shortened his parries while adding strength to them. The two fought in this fashion for over a minute before the attacker suddenly increased his blade speed.

Suddenly Kas was on the defensive, shortening his parries in a desperate attempt to keep up. He was quickly losing ground and suddenly jumped backwards off balance.

Or so it seemed. When the attacker moved after him, Kas quickly set himself and force-pushed back directly into his opponent's momentum with enough strength to send his opponent flying backwards by the tens of meters.

But to his great surprise the armored figure was forced backward by less than one. He quickly stepped forward again and launched into the stunned Jedi's failing defenses. Twenty seconds later the Master fell to the ground. Twenty seconds after that, the other three Jedi joined him.

The attacker paused and searched for more opponents, but there were none, save one, just now coming out of the temple doors and racing forward towards him.

One of the blue blades suddenly extinguished and returned to a slot on his armored hip as he set himself against Luke's rushing green blade.

Unlike with Kas, Luke's attacks weren't terribly forceful, but they came with a rhythm that the attacker quickly matched. Luke let this go on for a few moments then began to alter his rhythm at key points in a seemingly random fashion.

The attacker quickly adjusted and countered Luke move for move.

The senior Jedi continued to subtly adjust his attack, feeling out his opponent and searching for a weakness in his technique…or at the least a slip that would allow him to break through and avenge the deaths of the Jedi whose bodies were littering the field.

But no such slip came. The fight continued on for several minutes with no headway made. Then, seemingly content that Luke had given him all that he had to offer, the attacker switched back to offense and suddenly started to drive Luke backward.

The 701 year old Jedi drew on every bit of experience and skill that he possessed to try and hold his form. The intersection of blue and green blades grew faster and faster until it was all Luke could do just to get the green blade in front of the blue.

Luke's precision diminished and the attacker used this to his advantage, gradually maneuvering Luke's hands into a precisely measured position with each blow…

A green and black armored knee came up into Luke's wrists and knocked his lightsaber from his hands. It fell to the ground then arced up into his attacker's grip.

Luke, unbalanced and disoriented, fell backward onto the ground and quickly found the tip of his opponent's blue blade centimeters from his face.

The attacker held it there as he reached up and removed his helmet. He palmed it and Luke's lightsaber in his left hand as he looked down into the Jedi Master's startled face.

"We need to talk, Skywalker."


	2. Chapter 2

Luke blinked away the glare from the blue tip staring him in the face.

"Alright," he said guardedly. "About what?"

"Your weaknesses," the man said with a touch of disdain in his voice.

Luke inched back from the blade. "Was it necessary to kill them to get to me?"

The man frowned. "You'd think a 700 year old Jedi would be more aware," he said, shaking his head fractionally in disappointment. "They're not dead, just stunned."

Luke's eyes widened in surprise. He reached out his senses to the pile of bodies, but couldn't get a clear reading on their vitals. The threat of the blade hovering in front of him was consuming his attention.

"How?"

The man let the blade drift down and tapped the ground. There was a faint snap, but the blade didn't cut the soil.

"It stuns," he said, returning the tip in front of Luke's face. "But it still parries and deflects like normal. It's called a stunsaber."

Luke felt his nerves settle a bit, and caught a flicker of life from his fellow Jedi. "Never heard of it."

"It's a training tool. I'm surprised your Masters never mentioned it."

Luke glanced to his real lightsaber held in the man's other hand, then to the second saber on his hip. "Is that one real?" he said, motioning with his chin.

"They're both real," he said matter of factly. He deliberately turned his head and looked at the handle of his ignited saber.

Suddenly the blue blade flashed. Luke squinted the light from his eyes and found himself staring into a pure white blade.

"This is the normal lightsaber setting," he said as he twirled it through the turf for emphasis. Dirt sprayed up into Luke's face, but he didn't move. Soon the blade was back, centimeters from his face.

"Who are you?" Luke asked in amazement.

The white tip crept closer to Luke's nose.

"I am the one who bested you," the man said simply. "I am the one whom you did not know existed. The one that arrived here undetected, the one that took several of you unaware, and the one that defeated every last Jedi here, including your double-blade wielding friend, who has some potential, I think."

The man stepped back from Luke and extinguished his lightsaber.

"I am Aer-ki Jyr, and if I was an enemy you would be dead, along with the others."

Luke stood up. "What is it you want, Jyr?"

"To deliver a warning," he said simply. "There is trouble coming, and you are unprepared for it."

"You could have simply told me," Luke said, annoyed. "The fighting was unnecessary."

The man gritted his teeth. "It was very necessary. You are stagnant and arrogant, and needed a lesson in reality."

"Violence should be a last resort," Luke said calmly.

Without warning a force wave hit Luke and threw him backward into the air. He hit the ground with a thud, jamming his elbow in the process. He pushed away the pain and glanced up at Jyr as he walked toward him.

"Violence is a term used by pacifists," Jyr said, standing over Luke. "Fighting is not of the darkside. The sooner you learn this, the better."

The man's boot jerked forward and kicked Luke in the gut, doubling him over as he was trying to stand up.

Luke rubbed his midsection and began to stand, but Jyr kicked him down again. A flash of anger crossed Luke's features, but he immediately suppressed it. A Jedi did not act out of anger.

Luke began to rise again, and this time caught Jyr's foot. To his surprise the man smiled.

"Good," he said as he pulled back his foot. "I think I see now why you've lasted this long."

Luke straightened up as he caught the man's meaning. "You were testing me."

Jyr nodded. "I've read much about you and the Jedi you've trained, but there were some things I needed to see for myself. The fact that you've lived 700 years without proper training is significant, yet you haven't reached self-sufficiency. I've never known anyone to live this long without it…humans anyway."

"What are you talking about?"

"How old do you think I am?" Jyr asked.

"I'd guess in your thirties."

Jyr frowned. "Do you really think a 30 year old could have done this," he said, motioning to the unconscious Jedi lying around them.

"Until a few minutes ago I didn't think anyone could," Luke replied honestly.

"I am 142. I look 30 because I've reached self-sufficiency. My body's regenerative abilities have grown strong enough that I do not have a limited lifespan. It's rare for Jedi to achieve self-sufficiency, but there have been at least 137 documented individuals who have."

"I've never read anything about that," Luke said, wondering whether this was true or just a lot of Huttspit. "Where are you getting your information?"

"I have a copy of the Jedi archives."

Luke's eyes widened. "A full copy, pre-empire?"

Jyr nodded as if that were common knowledge.

"Is that how you learned to fight?" Luke asked, more curious by the moment.

Jyr smiled. "Not exactly. I'll explain later if you wish, but for now understand this…your training by Yoda and Obi-wan was very incomplete. You've probably guessed this already, and have done what you can to fill in the blanks. But what you don't know is that the training Yoda and the other Jedi of that era received was flawed."

"Meaning what?" Luke asked, suspicious of a darkside twist.

"Meaning that they were trained to fear falling to the darkside. But the Jedi code says a Jedi should not fear. That, in and of itself, is misleading, but still you should be able to see the hypocrisy. The Jedi at the time believed that every person had both a lightside and a darkside within them and they tailored their training to resist the darkside and avoid situations where they might be, in their words, "tempted" to follow the darkside."

Jyr's tone became heavier. "This was a grave mistake. My master warned them of their shortsightedness, but they wouldn't listen. The Jedi teachings have carried a dangerous pacifistic leaning that has made them self-blinding, self-restraining, and in effect, self-corrupting. One trick of the darkside is to get Jedi to distrust themselves enough that they become conservative, even obsessively restrictive. Jedi councils in the past have fallen victim to this, and the training of Jedi since has been flawed. Including yours, Skywalker."

This wasn't the first time he'd had his training questioned by others. Usually those who did were treading dangerously close to the darkside. The same was probably true of Jyr, but Luke was far more interested in the mention of the man's Master, and the fact that he insinuated that he was far older than him.

"Who is your Master?"

Jyr glanced to his left. One of the bodies started to stir.

"A discussion for another time," Jyr said as he pulled on his helmet. He fished something out of his pocket and tossed it to Luke, along with his lightsaber.

"What's this?" Luke asked as he palmed a small, flat disc.

"Contact information. If you wish to discuss matters further, meet me then and there. Come alone or not at all."

Jyr spun about and ran faster than Luke had ever seen anyone run back to the forest where he disappeared, both from vision and from Luke's senses.

Luke walked over to Kas's body and laid a hand on his forehead. He was stunned, as Jyr had said. Luke glanced over his friend's prone form and unconsciously shivered. Kas was the best lightsaber duelist the Order had, and Jyr had taken him down without too much trouble.

Luke looked at the disc he had been given and continued to stare at it until Kas woke up from his unconscious state, thanks to Luke's help.

"What?!" Kas blurted as he jerked upward.

"Easy, my friend. He has gone."

Kas looked down at his body and felt for a wound. "I was sure I was hit by his lightsaber."

"You were, but it stunned you instead of killing you."

Kas looked up at him confused.

"I'll explain later. Help me revive the others, then I have to send a summons to all council members. The galaxy just got complicated again.


	3. Chapter 3

Luke stood at the viewport, arms crossed against his chest and looked out over the waves of Mon Calamari as the Jedi council watched the security hologram from Endor in stunned silence.

"This is not good," Zak Massa said via a holographic relay. He was one of two council members not physically present. The twenty that were continued to stare at the battle footage as it looped back to the beginning. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"How could someone that skilled _not_ come from the Order?" Rata Lesere asked. "Where could he have received his training, and how could he have achieved that level of proficiency without us even hearing a whisper of his existence?" the Mirialan said in dismay.

"She's right," Kas Mati said between steepled fingers. The red glow from his eyes had been subdued ever since his defeat. "You don't get that level of skill from training alone. He has combat experience."

"There may be others," Isi Nes said quietly. "This wouldn't be the first time sentient beings have learned to use the force independently of the Jedi," he said almost apologetically. The history of the Rakatan people had always weighed heavily on his conscience, despite his blameless record.

"Could he be Sith?" Zak asked.

Kas's eyes narrowed. "I couldn't get a good read on him, his aura was nearly undetectable."

"Or shielded?" Rata asked. Kas and Luke had been the only council members present during the incident.

Kas thought for a moment. "Possible…but he would have to be as skilled with masking techniques as he is with a lightsaber. Usually combat causes momentary fluctuations that will allow you a glimpse of their aura. I felt none." He turned to face Luke. "Did you?"

"No," Luke said, still looking out the window with his back to the council. "I couldn't even feel a precursor to his forcewave."

"And he counteracted mine somehow," Kas added, concerned. "He may have access to techniques that we've never encountered before."

"How could that be," Arynn Teor asked via hologram, "if he learned what he did from the archives?"

"Not our archives," Luke said, almost in whisper. "The originals."

"What do you mean, the originals?" she asked, confused.

"The pre-empire archives," Luke explained. "The ones that were destroyed when the Jedi Order fell."

"I thought you were able to reconstruct them?"

"Yes, but only partially," Luke said, his thoughts elsewhere. "There's no way of knowing how much was permanently lost."

"You spent over a century tracking those down," Bes-no Korra emphasized. "I highly doubt that he could find what you did not."

"I don't think he could have gained that level of proficiency by himself," Zak insisted. Of all the Jedi, Zak was the most knowledgeable in matters of training, next to Luke. He was, in fact, leading two dozen padawans on a training expedition at this very moment, which made his immediate recall impossible.

"He would have to have received training from a Master," he continued. "All of the self trained force users that we've encountered have been grossly incompetent when compared to a normal apprentice. He had to have been taught."

"He did mention having a Master, did he not?" Rata asked, glancing at Luke.

When he didn't respond, Kas did. "Yes, but he implied that his Master had been a Jedi nearly a millennia ago…which makes no sense."

"Luke's been around a long time," Bes-no said with a touch of forced humor. "Maybe someone else has been too."

"Perhaps outside our galaxy," Isi said, drawing more than a few stares.

The Jedi sat in silence for a moment, considering the implications if that were true.

"He could be lying," Arynn said at last.

"True," Zak conceded, "but that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The biggest of which…is he an enemy or not?"

"If he is," Kas said, his tone dire, "we're no match for him."

"Yet, if he wanted you dead why are you still here?" Matt Cerva asked. "You mentioned he delivered a warning before he left, and he took great care to incapacitate rather than kill. That doesn't sound like your typical enemy, nor your typical Sith."

"He didn't appear too friendly either," Arynn countered.

"What does he want from you?" Moto Seunn asked.

The Ithorian was addressing Luke, who finally turned to face the others. "I've been considering that ever since our encounter. I have no idea."

"What do you plan to do?" Bes-no asked.

"The only way we're going to get any answers is to accept his invitation," Luke declared reluctantly.

Isi's eyelids closed to slits. "That could be dangerous."

"I agree," Bes-no said.

"Matt may have a point," Rata interjected. "If he wanted you dead he could have killed you on Endor."

"Do we know for sure that he even left Endor?" Zak asked.

Luke nodded. "There was a minor blip on the sensor records. He arrived and left within two hours, probably in a stealth equipped shuttle."

"No chance at tracking it then?" Zak asked rhetorically.

Luke shook his head.

"Where is the contact point?" Arynn asked.

"Feole VI," Luke said.

"Ugh," Bes-no said in mock disgust. "I'm glad he told you to come alone. I hate snow."

Luke smiled despite himself. His friend was trying to counter their collective uncertainty and bring them back to base with a bit of humor. He appreciated the effort, futile as it was.

"Do you want backup?" Kas asked Luke.

"No…he said to come alone, so that's what I'm going to do. I don't think it's wise to cross him unless we have a good reason to do so."

"Is there anything you want us to do in the meantime?" Bes-no asked.

"Contact Corellian Alliance and Rim League security. Give them Jyr's holo and advise them to track and observe him if they find him…but no contact whatsoever. Kas…same for the Chiss Concordat."

The two Jedi Masters nodded.

"Kas," Rata interjected, "I want to work with you on Jyr's fighting technique. Maybe we can pick it apart and learn something new."

"Perhaps," he said noncommittally. "Give me an hour."

"I'll pull a records search for this stunsaber Jyr used," Isi offered. "There might be a derivative of the technology in use somewhere."

"Also try and backtrack his armor design," Kas added. "It may give us a clue as to where he's been holed up."

"How long until the deadline?" Bes-no asked.

"Twelve days, but I'm heading out early," Luke said, his body language signaling that the meeting was over. "I want to have a look around the area before I meet Jyr at the coordinates."

"How soon are you leaving?" Kas asked.

"Tonight."

"May the force be with you, Skywalker," Zak said before ending his transmission.

The other Masters offered similar sentiments as they left the council chamber and split up on their individual assignments. Some headed to other parts of the temple, others to the hangar bay and their offworld assignments.

Luke stayed behind and stared out at Mon Calamari's water covered surface. This was the largest of the six Jedi temples. It had been built as the primary interaction point between the Jedi Order and the various peoples of the galaxy. The other five temples had been built on more remote planets in order to give the Jedi some needed privacy.

Yet even here, at their informal embassy, they had a measure of isolation. The temple was, in and of itself, a floating city hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest Mon Calamari or Quarren habitat.

In addition to being a self contained city, the temple also doubled as a military stronghold. The hull was covered in thick, bluish-green armor that sported a vast array of weapons nodes and shield generators. On top of that, the hangar contained hundreds of fighters and small starships, most of which were armed to some degree.

Despite the isolated location and heavy security, Luke no longer felt safe within the temple walls. He had a feeling that Jyr could get to him anywhere at any time.

He figured it was better to meet Jyr face to face, rather than to have him force his way in again. Despite the uncertainty and possible danger, Luke was as curious as the others regarding Jyr. He was cautiously looking forward to the meeting and what he might learn. If Jyr really did have access to a copy of the original archives…


	4. Chapter 4

Skywalker arrived in the designated system three days early, and visited both Feole II and III before finally entering orbit around Feole VI three hours before deadline. His initial recon of the system had shown nothing suspicious, nor had his inquires on the two populated planets in the system.

Never the less, he didn't feel as easy about his entry into the ice planet's atmosphere as he should have. He wasn't sensing anything from the force, but there was a knot in his gut that wouldn't go away.

The coordinates that Jyr had supplied took him far from the narrow equatorial region that was home to the string of mining installations that provided the Feole system with the bulk of its raw materials. When Luke's _Star Jumper_-class transport neared the northern ice field his ship's nav system picked up a homing beacon coming from the northwestern edge of the featureless expanse.

Luke deactivated the autopilot and adjusted his heading to match the beacon's vector. He slowed his descent and maxed out his active sensors. A few minutes later he detected a single building sitting atop the ice.

Kicking in the repulsorlifts, Luke dropped the Jedi scoutship down to ten meters above the frozen surface and approached at a snail's pace. He still couldn't visually spot the building that his sensor board indicated was at least two stories tall.

His careful approach lasted eleven minutes before he finally spotted a small, white structure that blended in almost perfectly with the snow. Luke extended the ship's landing struts and cringed as he felt them sink in half a meter. Once the ship had settled he took his hand off the repulsorlift controls and powered down the major systems while simultaneously prepping the ship for a quick restart. The veteran pilot didn't think he'd need it, but he'd learned long ago that a little paranoid preparation sometimes came in handy.

When he finally opened the side hatch he flinched against the glare coming off the snow. He stepped down to the icepack and looked around. He didn't see or sense anyone, so he headed for the square temporary structure and looked for an entrance.

He found it on the opposite side…along with Jyr. He focused his senses directly on the man, but couldn't get more than a faint numbness from him.

"Step inside, Skywalker. The glare will get to you if you stay outside too long."

Luke followed him inside. "Why am I here?" he asked bluntly as he glanced around the large room. The interior was furnished with a host of electronics and matte black equipment. Jyr pulled the door shut with a flick of his finger, then leaned a shoulder against a support pillar in the center of the room.

"There is a war coming. I've sensed it my entire life, as did my Master before me. You and the other Jedi are going to need my help if you want to survive it."

Luke frowned skeptically. "If you wanted to help, then why did you attack us?"

"Consider it an object lesson," Jyr said stoically. "Now you'll understand the seriousness of the situation when I say that I'm not sure if even Iam prepared for what's coming."

Luke was taken aback. "What _is_ coming?"

Jyr shook his head. "I'm not certain. I've felt a distant threat for some time and have tried to isolate it, with minimal success. It's not a single individual…it's something larger. I know the darkside is involved, but that's not the whole of it. When I look into the future I feel safety evaporating from the galaxy, and a moment to moment struggle for survival."

"This faint presence has been with me for over a century, always distant, always obscure, a constant dark spot on the horizon," Jyr said, narrowing his eyes. "Three months ago I felt a twitch."

Jyr said nothing more and the two men stared at each other in silence.

"Who are you?" Luke finally asked.

"I am a Jedi."

Luke frowned skeptically. "How?"

"My Master, Kel Doran, trained me by proxy. He foresaw both the threat we are facing and my presence in the future. He created a training facility with personalized instructions and regimens for me to follow. As far as I know, he died somewhere around 1500 years ago."

Luke struggled to keep his jaw from dropping. "You trained yourself?"

"Mostly. The Camasi monks that found me helped out where they could, but I primarily relied on my Master's recordings… and my own intuition."

Luke's mind raced. "Doran recruited the monks to help him," he surmised. "How did they find you?"

"My Master knew the exact location and circumstances in which I would appear, but he did not know the time. He gave the monks a detailed description of both the setting and my appearance. They kept the site under surveillance until they finally found me."

Luke slowly shook his head. "I know Camasi are notoriously loyal, but to wait that long for a prophecy to be fulfilled…" Luke found himself staring at the floor and glanced up at Jyr.

"You were trained explicitly to fight this threat?"

Jyr nodded.

"And you've been training all this time?"

Jyr cocked his head to the side in indecision. "More or less."

Luke thought for a moment. "What exactly do you want from us?

Jyr hesitated. "I want you to come back with me to my training center. There are things you need to learn. Things your Masters never taught you…and things they taught you wrong."

The Jedi Master unconsciously took a half step backward. "Are you asking, or demanding?"

Jyr smiled. "You need this, Skywalker. More than you know."

Luke steadied himself. "I'll tell you right now, I won't go over to the darkside. Not one step."

Anger flashed across Jyr's face, and for the first time Luke sensed something from him.

"The darkside is my enemy," Jyr said simply, through clenched teeth.

"Anger is a path to the darkside," Luke reminded him.

Jyr half laughed, half sighed. "You have so much to learn, Skywalker. I know it isn't all your fault, but I would have thought that you'd have figured out a few things on your own after a couple of centuries."

Luke arched an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Jedi teachings say each of us has a lightside and darkside inside of us."

"Yes," Luke confirmed.

Jyr shook his head. "Most of us have the potential to go to either the lightside or the darkside. That doesn't mean we carry each with us wherever we go. It's a subtle distinction that has been corrupted through years of misinterpretation."

Luke didn't completely buy what he was saying, but he figured arguing at this point wouldn't do any good. "Go on."

"The force can also be used independent of either the lightside or the darkside. You can be gray, for lack of a better term. Gray isn't half dark and half light, it's neither."

"I've heard similar suggestions before," Luke said diplomatically.

"But you didn't agree with them?" Jyr asked, picking up on his tone.

"Ignoring the dark kernel within us will increase its influence over us..."

"…and the darkside gains a victory by getting you not to trust yourself," Jyr interrupted. "That's one way the darkside will corrupt you. It can weaken you without you even touching the darkside. Merely the fear of it is enough, if you let it consume you."

"The darkside doesn't consume me," Luke argued.

"Yet nearly all of your training has been focused around it," Jyr countered. "Were you ever taught anything about the force without the darkside being mentioned?"

Luke started to deny it, but caught himself. _Technically he's right_. "The force is like a two sided coin. No matter how much you focus on one side, the other is still there."

"So you've been taught," Jyr said, expecting as much. "Have you ever felt the darkside?"

"Yes, I have," Luke said carefully.

"Did you sense the lightside simultaneously?"

Luke thought about that. "In some cases."

"But not in all?" Jyr pressed.

Luke frowned. He remembered vividly the sick, creeping feeling of the darkside and several places where he had felt it. The image of the cave on Dagobah suddenly burst forward from the recesses of his mind.

"I know where you're trying to go with this," Luke said. "I've been over this time and again with my students. Whenever you think you've escaped the darkside and let down your guard, it always comes creeping back in."

"So said Jedi councils of the past. They were afraid to look at the darkside and find out what it really is, lest they be corrupted by it."

"Why is that so wrong," Luke asked, "if it keeps them safe?"

"You need to know your enemy," Jyr said sternly.

Luke shook his head in mild reproach. "Not at the expense of going to the darkside."

Jyr glared at him and pushed off from the support. Two quick steps later he punched directly at Luke's face.

Luke caught his fist in midair.

"How did you know how to do that?" Jyr asked as he applied pressure to Luke's grip.

"It's called self defense," Luke answered, holding firm.

Jyr smiled and relaxed. "Did you have to learn how to hit someone before you learned how to catch a punch?"

Luke let go. "Punching is easier."

"That's not what I asked," Jyr corrected. "Do you _have_ to know how to punch before you know how to block?"

Luke frowned, not sure if he had a point or was just randomly violent. "No."

"Correct. You can study the dynamics of the punch without actually punching. You can practice catching punches thrown at you and become good at blocking them without ever having to throw one yourself."

"And your point?" Luke asked, though he had an idea what he was getting at.

"You don't have to go darkside to learn about it. You can study your enemy from the outside and learn all you need to know in order to fight it. Turning a blind eye to it isn't necessary."

Luke shook his head. "True, but the more you stare at temptation the more likely you are to give in to it."

"Temptation…" Jyr said, rolling his eyes. "Fine. We'll do this another way. You've been told that anger and the darkside are connected?"

"Anger can lead to the darkside, yes."

"Can you be angry without the darkside involved?"

Luke considered. "You can be angry and not go darkside. But the anger pulls you closer to the dividing line."

Jyr smiled again and took a step back. He flexed his muscles and gritted his teeth. "Allow me to demonstrate how wrong you are."

"What are you doing?" Luke said as he suddenly felt the force start to rush around them.

"Feel for the darkside…even a hint of it coming from me. You will feel anger, aggression, even rage, but you won't find the darkside because it's not there. Witness the fury of the _lightside_."

Jyr clamped his eyes shut and tensed even more. Luke felt Jyr's masking technique dissipate and got his first good feel for the Jedi.

The lightside flowed from him with an intensity Luke had never felt before, not even from his old Master.

He started to feel anger and aggression seeping into the mix. The flow of force from Jyr increased and Luke took another step back. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

Jyr's anger increased. His aggressive emotions began to bleed throughout him and he began to enter a stage of rage that Luke knew from past experience to be very dangerous. Luke remembered what the misguided Jedi had asked of him and searched for the darkside lurking behind the anger.

To his surprise he couldn't find any. Not even a trace.

Jyr suddenly straightened, tilted his head back…and screamed. His force aura brightened to painful intensity and exploded outward like a nova.

Luke fell backward, overwhelmed and blinded by the invisible light.


	5. Chapter 5

Luke searched his memories and found the sensory suppression technique that he was looking for. He dulled his connection to the force and recovered his inner balance.

No longer overwhelmed, he gathered his legs underneath him and slowly stood as he stared at Jyr in amazement. The Jedi was doing something that Luke had been told was impossible, and doing so with such intensity that there was little room for argument. 

His connection to the lightside was undeniable and, to be completely honest in Luke's opinion, awe inspiring. But that shouldn't have been possible given the emotions flowing from him. _Anger, fear, aggression…the darkside of the force are they_. 

His old Master had quoted that adage often, and while he wasn't sensing any fear coming from Jyr, there was definitely anger and aggression. 

_And yet, they don't feel quite the same._

Luke sensed Jyr's aura slacken, and his presence in the force suddenly diminished beyond the Jedi Master's ability to sense. Luke released his suppression technique just in time to catch the last glimpse of Jyr's inner self before he reestablished his masking technique.

Jyr blinked away the last bits of his force exertion then stood perfectly still, perfectly calm, looking at Luke. "Now, do you understand?"

Luke stepped closer to him. "I know now that you're not a misguided Jedi on the path to the darkside, but I don't have a clue how you're doing what you do."

Jyr smiled. "Good. You don't cling to false beliefs when the truth smacks you in the face. That can't be said for many Jedi of the past." Jyr crossed his arms over his chest. "What you need to know about me is that I'm pure lightside, as was my Master before me. Most people can go either light or dark, but a rare few exist at the extremes of the spectrum. I have no doubt that out there somewhere there are those who are pure darkside, just as I am pure lightside. This simple fact is something the Jedi council could never swallow."

Luke frowned, curious but not quite understanding. "Can you not touch the darkside?"

Jyr thought for a moment. "I suppose I could, but for me it's like a toxin. I'm completely incompatible with it."

Luke thought for a moment. "If that's true…then you don't have to worry about emotional control?"

Jyr laughed. "Emotional control isn't about suppression, it's about fine tuning. Give a child a lightsaber and they'll probably cut off an arm and a leg because they haven't learned how to control the blade. The same is true of emotions. Raw, erratic emotions are very dangerous…your senses get skewed, your thought processes slow, and you're very susceptible to manipulation, among other things."

"I've known that," Luke said. "I've just always connected it to the darkside."

"When you don't have to worry about the darkside, you can throw yourself into training designed to push you past your limits to the point where you begin to lose self control. That is when you truly learn about yourself and learn self control, but restrictive teachings and training don't allow for that."

Jyr grew more solemn, but with a hint of anger in his voice. "I think that's why so many Jedi have gone over to the darkside. They never trained in a state of mental, physical, and emotional overload. Then they encountered some extreme situation that overwhelmed them and they didn't know how to deal with it. Some worked their way out of it, some became even more restrictive, and others turned to the darkside for who knows what reason."

Luke considered that. "I don't know, but it seems there is more to the force than I previously thought."

"It's just a theory," Jyr added. "But I suspect I'm right…with regards to the Jedi of the past _and present_."

Luke arched an eyebrow. "You're saying I trained them wrong?"

"I'm saying they're not ready for what's coming," Jyr countered. "You've been taught that the darkside is stronger than the lightside."

"I don't believe that," Luke interrupted.

Jyr nodded. "There we agree…but Jedi have been taught that the darkside allows you access to greater power while consuming and ultimately destroying you. What this implies is that you can get a power boost for a short period of time if you are willing to sacrifice yourself."

"And in extreme situations," Luke said, following Jyr's line of thought, "a Jedi might be tempted to go to the darkside to gain the power they need to save lives."

"Add in the fact that the way of the Jedi was said to be self sacrifice…" Jyr added.

Luke cringed. "I can see where that could be a problem."

"Fear of the darkside can lead to many problems," Jyr said, quoting one of the tenets of the Jedi code.

Luke mentally recited the Jedi code. If what Jyr was implying was true…

"Will you give me access to your copy of the archives?" Luke asked.

Jyr nodded. "Full access to the archives, but limited access to my Master's notes. His training uses an incremental approach. Jumping ahead could cause problems."

Luke blew out a breath. "I'll tell you right now, I'm not completely convinced with what you've told me. But what I've seen from you has cast some doubts on tenets that I've held to be true. I'm curious to see what else your Master taught you, but I warn you…I may not come to the same conclusions you have."

"Fair enough," Jyr said as he walked over to a storage locker and pulled out a data disk and a tracking device. He gave them both to Luke.

"Meet me at these coordinates in two weeks. I'll activate a homing beacon then _and only then_. Use this," he said, indicating the tracker, "to follow the preprogrammed frequency. The training facility is hidden, and I don't want to risk giving the location away. There are still many people in this galaxy that do not like Jedi."

Luke nodded, then glanced around the room. "What is this place, by the way?"

"It's a military temporary structure. It breaks down into pieces and can be reassembled in a matter of minutes by troops in the field. It seemed the best option for a remote rendezvous."

"How did you get it here? I didn't see a ship."

"I have some contacts in the smuggling community that come in handy from time to time," Jyr said ambiguously. 

"Right…" Luke said. Apparently Jyr had more resources at his disposal than he had previously thought. He'd seen these types of mobile field bases before…and the price tags attached to them.

"One last thing," Jyr added. "This invitation is for you and you alone. Do not give the other Jedi the contents of that disk. The facility has holonet access, so you can keep in touch with them as often as you need to, but I want the training center's location kept a secret. The facility isn't something that I can just up and move if necessary. It's actually quite large."


	6. Chapter 6

Luke jerked to the left and pulled back his right shoulder just in time to dodge the tiny projectile that had been fired at him from one of several camouflaged points on the training chamber's curved walls. The small ball, the size of Luke's fingertip, impacted the far wall and fell to the floor where a low grade forcefield dragged it into a crevice that encircled the floor. Soon the soft marble would be recycled into one of the firing chambers and sent at Luke again.

The white haired Jedi Master twisted his right leg inward, but a fraction of a second too late. Another projectile hit him in the knee. He let it buckle his leg as he rolled two meters away and came back up into a combat stance.

Two more projectiles came at him simultaneously…one from upper right, and another from directly behind him. Luke dodged the first, got grazed by the second, and was nailed in the sternum by a third that he had failed to notice.

Luke dropped to a knee, grimacing against the pain and letting another one of the annoying balls pass over his head. Individually the tiny pain inducers weren't a problem. Their velocities were low enough and their material soft enough that they wouldn't leave a bruise, just induce enough of a sting to let you know you were hit.

The catch was…the pain was cumulative. You could shrug off the first few dozen hits without much effort, but after a few _hundred_ you started to feel each one ever more so.

This was the 17th time Luke had been in this particular chamber since his arrival at Jyr's hidden training complex three long weeks ago. He'd met Jyr and the Camasi monks upon arrival, gotten a tour of the massive underground complex, then was taken to his new quarters and told to ready himself for PT immediately.

"Not fit for training," Jyr had decreed when he'd shown up for their first exercise in traditional Jedi robes. Soon, Luke was outfitted in a thin, lightweight, body-hugging training garment and thrown into a myriad of training exercises.

Jyr had explained that there were 52 base training drills that he would have to pass in order to move onto more advanced drills. Luke had discovered that each base drill opened up at least one new, related exercise that was independent of all the others. Luke's progress board displayed what looked like tree branches reaching upward from the 52 base 'trunks.'

Some of Luke's branches extended farther up than others, but there was one in particular that had defied growth. He had passed the first tier of the projectile evasion drill, but had stalled out in his progress when the number of projectiles had increased. To his increasing annoyance, he simply couldn't seem to dodge the stupid little balls in succession.

One, two, three he could handle just fine, but he couldn't keep going for long without getting hit…and the computer only counted _consecutive_ dodges against his total. If he got hit, the counter reset to zero.

Jyr had asked him to restrict his use of the force while training as much as possible, to Luke's chagrin. He had come to believe that his 'training' would be force heavy given Jyr's lack of respect for the dangers of the darkside. The aches and pains his body was carrying with him from day to day attested to a radically different approach to training Jedi.

Still, foreign as it was to Luke, he tried to adhere to Jyr's forceless policy as much as he could. The knowledge that he had been gaining in his downtime was well worth going through the training on Jyr's terms.

Another four hours and Luke could dive into the archives again while Jyr went off to do whatever it was he did while not training or sleeping. The man kept to a strict 10/10/10 training schedule. Ten hours training, ten hours downtime, and ten hours spent sleeping.

Jyr had been insistent on getting the full ten hours of sleep, which hadn't been a problem for Luke. He'd reluctantly had to pull himself away from the Jedi archives an hour or two early on several occasions. Ten hours of sleep had been proving to be barely adequate for the workload Jyr was putting him through.

Part of Luke didn't care about the training. He was already a Jedi Master and had been so for centuries. His only concern was reading through the archives that had been eluding him for so long.

But as the days laboriously passed by, Luke belatedly realized that another part of him was starting to respond to the challenges facing him. It wasn't just about doing what he needed to do to get at the archives anymore, the Jedi Master was a student again, and something about that just felt right.

Then there was a third part of Luke that had been gaining more influence over his conscious mind as time passed. It was the competitive part of him that didn't like being completely outmatched by his counterpart.

Jyr had given Luke the chance to watch him go through some of the more advanced drills. In doing so, Luke had came to the stark realization that Jyr's skills far surpassed his own, despite his 500 year plus edge in experience.

That discontentment with his skills was exasperated even more by his inability to dodge these annoyingly persistent projectiles. He'd resisted the urge to reach out with the force and stop them in midair.

"That wouldn't help you learn to dodge, would it?" Jyr had said.

So Luke had been using the force only to enhance his senses and not his movements. He could track, even predict a few of the shots, but the computer controlled program seemed to know how to attack his weak spots…and continually pelted him where he was least expecting it.

Luke was starting to get frustrated. He clamped down on that emotion and tried to focus, but as more and more of the little balls left stinging reminders of his failures he started to not care about passing the test…only in defying those unrelenting little black balls.

Luke took a shot to the cheek and made a snap decision. He was either going to have to quit or go all in, without regards to how tired he might be tomorrow.

_I'm not a quitter._

He took another shot to the leg as he summoned his inner reserves while letting his connection to the force diminish to almost nothing. He jerked and twisted as four more shots came at him over 1.3 seconds. He dodged three, but the other stung him in the ankle.

He gritted his teeth and jerked away from another two. The program didn't allow him time to think…he simply had to act and react.

He persisted, pushing away the pain and focusing on his movement only. He stopped trying to use the force to predict where the shots would come from and focused solely on detecting them when they emerged. He tried over and over again for the next hour with limited success.

Suddenly there was a lull in the shots and his senses seemed to crystallize into perfect clarity as he waited for the next shot to come. He waited…and waited.

Luke's senses released back to normal as the door to the chamber opened.

"Did you stop it?" Luke asked.

"It stopped because you beat it," Jyr said casually. "150 consecutive dodges. About time."

Luke glared at him and his mocking tone, then tried to replay the last few moments in his mind. He couldn't remember past the last four shots.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I don't remember doing that well."

"You can check the holo-record if you want, but I was watching you the past five minutes. When you move in that fast of a rhythm your senses focus in on the moment and you can easily lose track of time."

Luke stared at his hand for a moment, flexing his fingers in and out as he tried to figure out what had just happened.

"You alright?" Jyr asked, a bit of genuine concern in his voice.

The Jedi Master shook his head clear. "Fine," he said, turning around to face Jyr. "What's next?"


	7. Chapter 7

Luke jumped, using just a touch of the force, and got his fingers on the three meter high ledge above him. He pulled his torso halfway up, then walked his leg around and hooked his heel on the ledge. With a tug, the Jedi Master rolled his body up and over the edge but didn't allow himself a moment of hesitation as he got to his feet. He was on the clock.

Stepping carefully, Luke ran across a 20cm wide beam for 50 or so meters, then climbed a narrow, spine-shaped ladder up to another beam 19cm wide. He continued higher and higher with each beam getting progressively narrower as he doggedly made his way through obstacle course #7.

Luke gritted his teeth, drawing on a bit of aggression to fight past his fatigue. He didn't want to fall again.

Climbing the last three short runs of the last ladder, Luke pulled himself up to the highest peak inside the cavernous facility. He steadied himself then started over the 5cm wide beam that would lead to a down chute and the second half of the course.

Or so the map said. Luke had failed to make it that far.

Focusing on his foot placement on the narrow beam and not the 210 meter drop, Luke walked warily, taking small steps. The last time he had gotten here he'd been blown off by…

A gust of wind suddenly hit him from the right. He released his knees and caught the beam as he fell off sideways. Luke grunted in frustration and started to pull himself back up, but hesitated as another wind gust swung his feet sideways.

Then a thought struck him through his fatigue-induced haze. He let go with his right arm and reached underneath to the other side of the beam. He grabbed the opposite side and began to hand-walk his way forward, underneath the narrow bridge.

It was slow going, but his steady grip was proving adequate against push and pull of the erratic wind bursts. It took quite a while to cover the 120 meter span, but when he pulled himself up onto the opposite platform he found himself in uncharted territory.

_Not done yet_, Luke reminded himself. He was still on the clock.

He ducked into an alcove and slid feet first down a tube that corkscrewed and meandered throughout the training grounds before it dropped him into a tank of water.

Luke clawed his way to the surface and swam against the current. He knew from the map that if he let the current pull him too far downstream it would draw him into a forcefield that would pluck him from the water and put him back down at the obstacle course start…where he'd have to begin all over again. Luke struggled forward, barely making any headway.

He was _so_ tired. Never in his life had he gone through training this intense. His memories of Dagobah flashed back as _pleasant_ in comparison, but Luke didn't have time to think. If he didn't focus himself entirely on the task at hand his fatigue would drop him like a rock.

He'd noticed his growing aggressiveness with a mix of curiosity and concern. When he had time to think, his mind kept flashing back to the connection between aggression and the darkside, but those times were becoming few and far between. He'd even had to restrict his archives search to five hours a day in order to get enough sleep.

That said, Luke wasn't really concerned. He felt good…and his force use was so low that he wasn't worried about going over to the darkside. Right now all he was worried about was fighting this current…

He tried to focus a little harder, but he didn't have much left in the way of reserves. He was going to have to be patient and slowly make progress toward the red rope hanging tantalizingly over the 'river' about 30 meters in front of him.

A few minutes later his mechanical hand got a grip on the rope and Luke let his body drag in the water for a moment. He could have tried to use the force to recharge his energy faster, but he didn't really feel like it. That would have required a serene, self calm…and right now Luke's heart was thumping in his chest.

Besides, that would be cheating. Jyr had said 'low to no force'. Luke didn't want this test to simply end…he wanted to beat it.

Reaching his real hand up he began to climb the rope one centimeter at a time. He was glad he wasn't wearing robes, they would have been as heavy as Huttspit wet. The thin training clothes that Luke wore seemed to defy the water and maintain their lightweight, but that didn't keep his arms from burning as he ascended the incredibly long rope.

Once he got to the top he found a narrow set of monkey bars. Luke focused his mind and used the force to wick away the remaining water from his hand before reaching out and grabbing the first of the grip-covered bars. He slid the moisture off his other hand and started to swing his way through a curvy course above obstacle course #2 and #3.

It seemed to go on for kilometers before Luke finally spied a raised platform around one last sweeping turn of the inverted track. When he finally reached it he pulled himself over the flat green landing and released his sore fingers, dropping into a crouch.

_One last section to go_.

Luke took off sprinting and gathered himself for one last challenge. Three hundred meters ahead was a gap that he had to jump across to reach the finish. If he missed…it was back to the start.

The dead-legged Jedi let the downhill slope propel him forward as he tried to relax and squeeze the last bit of spring out of his legs before the grade leveled out and he reached the 22 meter wide gorge's edge.

Luke pulled heavily on the force and leapt high into the air…but he knew as soon as he took off that he was going to come up short. He tried to slow his fall through the air and reached out with his fingers…barely catching the edge.

Luke would have smiled if he'd had the energy. He pulled himself up on the other side of the gorge and jogged to a solitary pedestal. He smashed his hand down on the wide button for the first time and sagged to the floor in a crossed legged position, cradling his head in his hands as he tried to steady his breathing.

A few minutes later Luke raised his eyes to the nearby clock.

19:43

Luke blew out a breath. Jyr's best posted mark was 14:12.

"I'm seriously reconsidering the Jedi Master title," Luke said, sensing his teacher walk up behind him.

"Is that because of the training, or your search through the database?" Jyr asked.

"Both," Luke said, exasperated. "I had no idea how far behind we were," he said, glancing up at Jyr. "Present company excluded."

Aer-ki smiled. "I'm not sure how well I'd match up either. One reason I still consider myself a Jedi Knight."

"What's the other reason?" Luke asked, standing up.

"Most Jedi Masters were Consulars. _Knight_ befits a more active existence."

"Not all were Consulars," Luke said, referring to the varying classes of Jedi that he'd only recently learned of. "So-noon Respa, for one."

"True, but most of the Jedi Masters that sat on the council were," Jyr said with mild disgust. A recent discussion with Luke had made his feelings clear concerning Jedi and inactive lifestyles, which he'd deemed 'stagnation.' "Most of the active Jedi retained the rank of Knight."

"Certainly contradicts the stereotypical Guardian ego," Luke commented. "What's up next?"

"Calisthenics," Jyr reminded him.

Luke blew out a breath. "Right. Are you coming?"

The dark haired man nodded. "I was just waiting to see if you'd finish the course. The Camasi have some in-house betting going on regarding your progress. I think Te'Sad is going to be the big winner tonight."

Luke frowned. "Monks betting?"

"I imagine they get bored easily."

They both laughed and headed to another part of the training facility where they went through an hour and a half of combined calisthenics before calling it quits for the day. They'd run over their ten hour training window by twelve minutes.

Not that it bothered Luke, he was enjoying the challenge. He caught a quick shower and dropped his blissfully tired body in front of a computer terminal. He punched up another section of the Jedi archives and began to pour through it as his body began another much needed period of rest.


	8. Chapter 8

Luke punched the small floating droid with his left hand, but it didn't slow its advance. A second, more powerful punch surpassed the target's built-in pressure threshold and the droid retreated back up the causeway.

Another two were approaching the yellow zone on his right. He lept sideways and sent them packing with a quick pair of force-enhanced punches. Luke darted forward and intercepted another, still in the green zone, before slashing diagonally and assaulting a wave of six creeping their way up the wide path's left side.

The point of this drill was to keep the droids from reaching the line that Luke was tasked to defend. The training monitor kept track of duration time for the exercise, duration time for each zone, total hits, and the number of hits within each individual zone. The floor and walls were marked in blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and black zones that marked how close the floating balls, each about the size of Luke's head, were to reaching the golden line that separated the red and black zones.

A single droid entering the black zone would mean failure, and the sweat soaked Jedi was having a hard time fending the pesky little buggers off. The corridor was too wide for him to effectively block, so he was forced to move about constantly. He'd send one section of droids packing all the while the others methodically slipped by on his flanks.

That alone wasn't the worst of it. After seven weeks of intensive training, Luke felt himself nearing the breaking point. He was skimming the periphery, far past what he would have deemed fatigue. He didn't know what was keeping him going, but he'd persisted…somehow.

He'd even managed to keep his force use low…up until this last exercise. The droids were moving too fast for his aching body to keep up with. He'd never really known what a 'last resort' was…until now. He was pulling on the force in ever increasing amounts as he fought off wave after wave of droids.

Quitting was no longer an option, nor was losing. All remnants of either concept had been methodically pounded out of him. He operated with a single-minded purpose now.

_Face the challenge._

_Beat it._

_Conquer it._

_Master it._

_Never ignore it._

That simple, ancient mantra that Aer'ki had drawn Luke's attention to within the archives had stuck with him. He'd repeated it, over and over during his training as he failed test after test.

Failed…then finally succeeded, often unexpectedly. Luke had been through the cycle so many times that he no longer knew the mantra as words, he _felt_ the meaning of it in every movement he made.

He breathed it in and sweated it out. Every fiber of his being was active and pushing forward…even as the droids were pushing him back.

Luke was losing the battle against the oncoming flow. He force jumped the entire width of the causeway and punched two, close set droids simultaneously. He felt a satisfying crunch in their stiff padding, then sprint/jumped up the flow of droids and dispatched a group of seven.

He backtracked, taking out three more on the right, then lept from the green zone all the way back to the orange as he hastily went after one that had slipped by. Luke caught it just as it was entering the red zone and angrily punched the droid from behind. He was allowing his fatigue to reduce his perceptional awareness…and _that_ was unacceptable.

The droid boosted forward from the blow, then swung around toward the edge of the causeway and floated back towards the collection bin. Luke put it out of his mind and focused on the still active droids ahead of him. His senses crystallized and he felt each and every droid in front of him as he was summoning another force jump.

The slip second respite was enough for part of Luke's mind to register the emotions running through him.

Among the mix he felt anger and aggression.

He also felt the force flowing through him freely. A spike of fear swept through him and he quickly checked his emotions…with no success. His level of physical and mental exertion wasn't something he could simply turn off with a flip of a switch.

Worried, Luke let the droids pass him by as he tried to calm himself. He inwardly cringed, and felt past his anger to verify what he knew would be lurking there.

The Jedi blinked. He searched through his inner self again. _Nothing_.

Luke rechecked himself, over and over again. He could feel his anger simmering beneath his heavy breathing and flushed skin, but he couldn't sense the darkside.

_No_, Luke thought, despite the warning flares going off in his subconscious, _it's not simmering_.

Another part of Luke's mind wondered why he was dabbling with semantics when he'd just crossed way over the line without even realizing it.

Luke's curiosity prevailed and he sorted through his emotions with an eye towards accuracy rather than dogma.

Jyr had said, "Anger, Aggression, Determination, and to a lesser extent, Fear make up an emotional cocktail referred to as combat acuity. When properly honed, these emotions enhance situational awareness, danger sense, energy production, and target acquisition."

_That's what I'm feeling now_, Luke thought as he looked at his hands, not completely trusting his senses. _I'm focused…not out of control_.

Something clicked in Luke's mind. He looked around the room, at the droids, the failure notice on the training display, the ceiling, floor, walls, his own feet. He glanced back at his hands again, flexing them.

_It's so simple…why didn't I see this before?_

As he asked himself the question he realized he already knew the answer.

Luke blew out a breath and tiredly laid down on his back, looking up at the ceiling as his mind made connection after connection. So many mysteries of the past suddenly became clear.

Anger, he now realized, was not a single emotion. There were various types of anger, not easily discernable from one another. But now that he could sense the razor thin line between them, he knew he wasn't in danger of confusing them again. There was a substantive difference wider than a Hutt's butt.

_I've been a fool_, Luke concluded. _The truth has been right in front of my face, yet I've been blind to it my entire life._

Luke balled his fists and drew the force through him, using it to enhance his combat senses. The world around him crystallized again and he held onto this time. He looked around, both with his eyes and the force. His energy built up inside him, ready to surge forth at a moment's notice if needed. He picked himself up from the floor and flicked the reset button with a wave of his finger.

A new wave of droids approached. Luke could feel each and every one in precise detail. He let them approach through the blue, green, and yellow zones. When the first two reached the red…he moved.

He nailed the first with a quick left uppercut, feeling a faint emotional response.

_Mission accomplished,_ Luke mentally translated as he stopped the progress of three more droids, eliciting the same subtle emotional response to each.

For the first time in days the weary Jedi smiled. _Jyr was right_.


	9. Chapter 9

A single bead of sweat traced its way down Luke's forehead toward his eye before the Jedi wicked it away with a flick of the force. Many of the ancient Jedi Masters, mostly conservative Consulars, would have chastised him for an inappropriate use of the force.

"The Force is not your slave," Jedi Master Hio Selor had once said. "It is not meant for menial tasks that you are capable of accomplishing through other means. The Force is something to be respected and revered."

Luke had come across many such high-handed notions in the archives and was beginning to understand Aer-ki's general dislike for Consulars. However, on this occasion he thought Master Selor would have given him a pass…

Luke's body was rigid with concentration and exertion. If he'd reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow he was sure that he'd lose control of the weight he was force lifting over his head.

Not that he was in any danger of it crashing down on him. The progressive forcefields would slow, then bring to a stop the meter-wide metal ball before it ever got to Luke's head…no, he wasn't concerned about his safety, it was the clock on the wall in front of him.

He'd kept his eyes open, both to watch the clock and maintain focus. He'd discovered early on that it was necessary to use one's vision to maintain balance and orientation during prolonged telekinesis.

When Luke had first attempted this exercise he'd used a smaller weight and had spread his hands wide above his head in order to lift the oversized black marble up into the air. This he eventually deemed unnecessary as his telekinetic abilities became more refined. He was now able to force project from the core of his body rather than from his outstretched fingertips.

He no longer even needed to look up…he could now feel the mass through the force sufficiently enough to control its altitude. The lateral forcefields kept the ball from moving sideways, so all Luke had to do was focus on pushing it upward…and he'd been doing so for nearly twenty minutes.

Luke knew he couldn't maintain the effort much longer, but he'd already surpassed his previous best of 18:03 and was determined to make it past 20:00 before he finally gave in.

Ever since Ki, as Luke now called his friend, had started him on telekinesis drills Luke had researched the subject at length in the archives. There was a plethora of data, with multiple techniques and applications, but one in particular had caught his attention.

Self-levitation.

Luke had always thought that his inability to grasp the basics of this technique had been his own failing, but as he had discovered through his reading and Aer-ki had confirmed, self-levitation was actually a Jedi myth.

It seemed odd to Luke how he could lift weights far heavier than himself, yet be completely unable to lift his own body even a centimeter off the ground. He could jump in the air and use the force to slow his decent to a couple of centimeters every five or six seconds, and had done so multiple times in another drill, but he simply could not for the life of him stop his descent completely.

The Jedi of old had speculated that this mysterious inability must be routed in the fact that the force projector and projectee could not be one and the same. A Jedi by the name of Lo Yvar had likened it to a blaster and its target.

"A blaster can target and shoot anything…except itself."

Luke and Aer-ki, now that he had a partner to work with, had recently begun tandem training in an attempt to levitate _each other_. This was proving to be very difficult, but not impossible. It seemed that when one was force levitated, that person lost a great deal of force control, at least with regards to telekinesis. The two Jedi had been focusing their training on diminishing this loss of control and had succeeded in tandem levitation a few centimeters off the ground for a grand total of 14 seconds.

The archives had briefly mentioned this ability, noting its difficulty and rarity, along with numerous other tandem abilities. Some enhanced existing skills, others were completely unique. The archives had noted that the existence of these abilities had been one of the founding principles for the Master/Apprentice pairings.

Luke had often wondered why the Jedi of old had sent experienced Jedi on missions with inexperienced students. It seemed to him that it put the apprentices in excessive danger while inhibiting the Master's effectiveness. The archives had noted that even a basic tandem skill provided the pair with a significant advantage that often outweighed the hindrance of the Apprentice's inexperience.

It was recorded in the archives that most of the critical mission assignments had gone to Masters with experienced Apprentices on the verge of becoming Knights.

Both Aer-ki and Luke had been spending a little extra time working on their individual telekinesis skills in the hope that it would enhance their limited tandem ability, hence Luke's current quest for the 20:00 minute barrier.

He felt himself start to lose it, but tried to squeeze a few more seconds out.

The sphere dropped a meter and Luke began to get a little help from the forcefield, but that contact stopped the clock at 19:58. Luke released his faltering hold on the metal slug. It dropped another two meters into the full strength field. Luke glanced up at the weight hovering half a meter over his head. _So close_.

It was a new personal best, however, and Luke left it at that. It was time for him to meet Aer-ki in the sparring ring for some basic lightsaber drills against droids.

When Luke entered the 'arena' he found Aer-ki fighting against four droids simultaneously, all of them wielding the violet-colored stunsabers that Luke had recently become familiar with. He didn't mind using them in place of training sabers, but he wasn't too fond of the small numbing jolt he received whenever he got hit with one…which was the point, actually.

He saw Aer-ki glance at him as he arrived, but the Jedi continued to spar. The droids attacked with a predesignated pattern…the trick was keeping up with their mechanical speed.

Luke knew his friend could dispatch the four within two seconds if he chose to, but this drill was intended to hone one's speed between saber positions. Jyr's single blade whipped back and forth in a blur that untrained eyes would have been unable to follow. Droid optical sensors, however, were another matter.

Aer-ki glanced over at Luke again, then aborted the drill with a simple, vocal 'Stop' command and walked over to Luke.

"Something wrong?" Luke asked.

Aer-ki looked him over closely and smiled. "Go find a mirror."

Luke frowned, but his friend would say nothing more, so he jogged off to the nearest refresher station. Once inside he looked at himself in the mirror.

_Clothes look fine. There's nothing on my face…_ Luke glanced at his hair and froze. He pulled his fingers through the long white strands, examining the roots.

"When did that happen?" Luke asked himself as he stared at the half centimeter of sandy brown hair. He hadn't seen that color in 600 years.

"You've finally reached _Full_ self sufficiency," Aer-ki said from behind him.

"I thought I already had," Luke countered, still looking in the mirror.

"You were close, very close actually. Enough to sustain you this long, but not enough to undo some of the minor degradation you'd accumulated, such as your hair losing its color."

"Fear of the darkside was holding me back," Luke concluded, mentally kicking himself. "Now I understand why I've been feeling more and more like myself these past seven months."

"The darkside will attack the lightside in whatever way it can," Aer-ki said, with a hint of warning. "If it can't corrupt you, it'll try to kill you. For those Jedi who haven't reached self sufficiency, all it has to do is slow them down and attrition will kill them off."

Luke ground his teeth in a mixture of frustration and wonder. He was beginning to understand how insidious the darkside truly was…while at the same time realizing that it had a limited range of influence.

Luke turned away from the mirror and looked at his fellow Jedi Knight. "I guess I should say thanks. If not for your intervention…"

Aer-ki held up a hand. "Don't thank me with words. Thank me by not wasting time in here when you should be training. Full self sufficiency is going to open up some new options for you. I think it's time for another increase in your training."


	10. Chapter 10

Luke stood before the forcefield, centering himself. He drew in a shallow breath and stepped through the blue glow. A tiny force pressure point in his nose kept the air in his lungs from mixing with the pure carbon dioxide atmosphere within the circular shield. Luke closed his eyes and reached into his memory for a technique that he hadn't used for quite some time.

Aer-ki watched from outside the shield and felt Luke began to manipulate the air within his lungs. It was a subtle thing within the force, but up until now the rogue Jedi had never before witnessed the third tier of the breath control technique. He was hoping he could learn to overcome his inability to move beyond the second tier by observing Luke's manipulation of the force.

The oxygen in his lungs was depleting rapidly, but that was intentional. Luke didn't utilize tier two's oxygen consumption reduction techniques and allowed himself to progress to the point where he would need to step out of the shield and take another breath.

He felt the growing need for more oxygen as his lungs began to fill with carbon dioxide. Soon the concentration level in his lungs would equalize with the concentration level in his bloodstream and his respiration would stall out all together.

But before that could happen Luke used the force to create microscopic chemical reactions within the gas. The carbon dioxide molecules began to lose their carbon atoms…and suddenly Luke had more oxygen available, albeit in very small amounts.

Luke maintained the force-induced recycling for over ten minutes before stepping through the forcefield and back into clean air. He coughed a bit of carbon dust out of his lungs and looked at Jyr. "Did that help?"

Aer-ki nodded. "I don't know if I'll be able to replicate it, but I got a sense of it. Thanks."

Luke smiled. "I'm just glad there's one category on the scoreboard that I'm at the top of."

"Why don't you go work on making it two," Aer-ki prodded. "I'm going to stay here for a while."

"Good luck," Luke said as his friend stepped through the field. He turned and headed for the corridor while reaching up to run his fingers through his short brown hair.

He'd been doing that a lot lately. Part of him still couldn't get used to the long locks being absent, but he'd found that his ease of movement had increased without having to subconsciously factor in the movement of his hair.

That, and the fact that Aer-ki had made one of the disadvantages of long hair crystal clear when Luke had asked him whether he thought he should cut off the white strands as the brown roots began to grow further out. His friend had simply smiled and grabbed Luke by the hair, dragging him to the ground with it.

"Not something you want to have happen during combat," he'd said simply before letting Luke up.

Crude as his example was, Luke had gotten the point. He'd buzz cut the white off and discarded it…along with the Consular lifestyle that he had unwittingly adopted. One piece of the Jedi code that had not survived to the present era had reinforced his decision never to become stagnant again.

_A Jedi is always in motion_.

Aer-ki had agreed, yet corrected him on one point. "Consulars are not _supposed_ to be stagnant. All Jedi are expected to be skilled in combat. All train to improve their skills over time, even while they take on assignments that are far from physical. It has been said that 80 percent of a Jedi's life is devoted to combat and combat training…it's the other 20 percent that determines a Jedi's class."

Aer-ki had gone on to explain how Consulars often focused their secondary training on additional force powers, academics, or teaching in order to enhance their combat skills or the skills of others. Combat was the way of the Jedi, in one form or another, and it was when Jedi turned away from this basic philosophy that they began to lose their edge.

"Even healers," Aer-ki had said, "are Masters of combat. They can hold their own in traditional battles, but they are _Warlords_ when dealing with the microscopic. The subtle art of healing is actually an art of war that takes place on a cellular level."

Luke had never considered it that way, and searched through the archives for additional references. Most had regarding healing powers as pacifistic, but there were several perspectives that agreed with the microscopic combat philosophy. One Jedi healer in particular, a Master Yuis, had likened viruses and bacteria to enemy capital ships fighting in space. He said his mission was to assist his fleet, referring to the individual's immune system, in defending its home systems from invasion.

An odd approach for a healer, but it was beginning to make sense to Luke. The more areas he trained in the more he realized that a Jedi's life was one of perpetual combat. _A Jedi is always in motion_.

"No," Aer-ki had said when Luke mentioned that he thought he was best suited to being a Guardian, "your aptitude lies more with a Sentinel than a Guardian."

Luke disputed that, wanting to get as far away from a Consular as he could, but once again Aer-ki corrected him.

"A Sentinel is not half Guardian, half Consular. A Sentinel is essentially a Guardian that acts as a troubleshooter. They go on a wide range of missions and accumulate a wide array of skills, but their combat prowess is nearly identical. In some ways a Sentinel is in more motion than a Guardian, given the ever changing fields that they are assigned to."

The more Luke had thought about that, the more he agreed with Ki. He _was_ a troubleshooter by nature.

To that end he had begun to search through the various powers and skills that were included in the facility's regimen. He had discovered, through a comparison with the archives, that there were many abilities that there were no training drills for, due to the fact that computers couldn't measure the force itself, but there were hundreds that Aer-ki's Master had documented and refined down to very specific exercises.

Luke searched through Aer-ki's marks in each area and found that there were many that his friend had no marks in whatsoever, and more so with very low marks. Luke had originally thought this would be an opportunity to surpass his friend, but had quickly discovered this not to be the case.

The most difficult part of learning new abilities was in attaining the first flicker of that ability. In the case of telekinesis, getting the first twitch of a pebble was far more difficult than learning to control and increase that same twitch.

After all, how did someone know where to start? Luke had tried in vain to learn several new abilities, but since he had no base to work from he was essentially taking stabs in the dark hoping he would hit on something that he could work with. The archives had left instructions to nudge someone in the right direction, but without someone to sense actually using the ability it was nearly impossible to make a breakthrough.

Most of the breakthroughs that did occur were usually offshoots of a preexisting ability, which tended to leave Jedi skilled in certain sets of abilities and completely oblivious to others. Sentinels notoriously sought out at least base levels in a variety of areas, often spending months or years before having an isolated breakthrough.

Luke had been attempting to live up to his predecessors' example, trying to learn a wide array of skills that his friend had no, or little success in. So far his attempts had gotten him nowhere…save for one exception.

Force camouflage was a specific, and very rare, ability to bend light around an object, creating a crude 'cloaking' effect. Aer'ki had achieved a level one rating in this ability but had gone no higher. Luke had also achieved level one, and was on the verge of surpassing his friend's time duration mark.

Luke had spent over a month trying to get a grasp of how this was accomplished before stumbling upon the ability while trying any and all approaches he could think of. The training drill for this ability used a low grade laser beam with a sensitive receptacle that would measure how much laser light was reaching it and for how long a duration.

Luke had spent hour after hour with his hand in the beam trying to get a flicker of light redirected in any direction. When he finally did he was elated, only to find that it was very difficult to reproduce. He spent another four hours with only two additional twitches to his credit…but it was a start, and something that he could build on.

After Luke left Aer-ki to his breath control practice he ran through obstacle course #3 and #4 before grabbing a quick shower and heading off to another part of the facility to continue work on his Force camouflage skills.

Luke put his hand into the blue beam and concentrated. A subtle distortion rippled through the air in front of his hand, much like heat waves rippling the air above a thermal exhaust vent. Slowly the distortion crept further around his hand and a dull blue glow illuminated a square meter around the photo receptor.

Enough of the light was reaching the receptor, though, to start the clock running. Luke didn't dare look at it…it was taking all his concentration just to maintain the limited distortion. He held on until a faint tone rang through his ears, indicating that the level of light reaching the photoreceptor had slipped below one percent.

He didn't completely release his deteriorating distortion and glanced up at the clock.

14.4 seconds. 5.3 max intensity.

Luke nodded, content with his first try. Attaining a level one ranking required a twelve second duration at one percent or greater intensity. Level two required 60 seconds at ten percent intensity.

While Luke was far from reaching level two, Aer-ki's best mark to date was 15.3 seconds. He was pleased to be near to surpassing his friend, but was even more proud that he had developed the skill without observing Aer-ki's attempts. If he could break through to one new ability on his own, it bode well for his attempts at others, especially the ones that Aer-ki couldn't touch.

Luke reset the counter and restored the distortion around his hand to the best of his ability. Another tone sounded and the clock began ticking upwards again…


	11. Chapter 11

Luke knew he was asleep, somewhere in that semiconscious transition that occurred just before one would wake. He found himself on a volcanic plain covered in hard-packed, dark red sand that was erratically spotted with flat, black puddles.

There were other Jedi there with him, though none that he recognized. They were jumping back and forth between the sandy spots as the black puddles oozed toward them. It seemed that as long as they moved quickly, they were able to avoid the semi-intelligent goo.

_A Jedi is always in motion_, Luke thought. He glanced down at a puddle beside him as it too reached toward him. He could feel the essence of the darkside within it, but it moved slow, far slower than the ones reaching for the other Jedi. Luke belatedly realized that the other Jedi were also moving in slow motion…

It suddenly clicked in Luke's mind. He was moving faster than they were, that's why things seemed a bit weird. While the other Jedi had to work hard to avoid the puddles, all it took from Luke was a step here and there. The darkside goo couldn't keep up with him, and as such didn't pose much of a threat.

For the others it was a different matter. Luke saw one human female misstep and a tendril of blackness reached out and touched her ankle. She jerked back instantly, but pulled a glob of it with her. She reached down to wipe it off, but only succeeded in spreading it up her leg. Another Jedi beside her caught a glob on his elbow as he dive-rolled across the ground. The two stood side by side, desperately trying to wipe the unrelenting creep from their bodies.

Luke felt himself run toward them, easily sidestepping the puddles. He held up his hand in example…and pulsed his aura around it. The white light flowed from his fingers then quickly diminished, with Luke feeling a brief flicker of fatigue in result.

The female Jedi caught on and produced a small, faint surge in her aura, but it was enough to loosen the creep's hold. She managed to flick a few drops off onto the ground before her aura faded. She sidestepped away from the drops and tried again.

The other Jedi either didn't understand or wasn't paying attention. He continued to futilely swipe at the clinging goo until another puddle reached out for him. He jumped to the side…then back-stepped away from another puddle. Soon he was back to dodging puddles, reluctantly accepting the presence of the glob on his elbow and forearm.

Luke saw the female Jedi pulse her aura a third and final time. The last of the goo dropped to the ground and formed a tiny puddle. As soon as her faint aura diminished the small black glob reached out for her again, but she had already darted off. Luke saw her throw him a quick, two fingered salute…then she disappeared into the crowd.

Luke looked around as he casually stepped over another puddle. He saw a twilek Jedi fall into a large puddle and try and claw her way out, but the creep had several sticky tendrils on her and it wouldn't let her go. She kept trying and trying to get away, but it was no use. He saw her pulse her aura and its hold slackened, but she couldn't maintain the effort long enough to free herself. Luke saw the horrible truth chiseled on her face…she knew she would never make it out…but she had to keep trying.

Luke felt his ire rise and his body suddenly ran forward and jumped into the puddle with her. He raised his aura to peak intensity and the goo retreated from his footsteps. He washed the lightside over his fellow Jedi and picked her up. He lept out of the puddle, carrying her on his back, and landed them both a safe distance away. The disrupted puddle of goo flowed back into its previous center, once again obscuring the red sand beneath.

He put the Jedi down on a clear patch of sand and pulsed his aura again to keep the approaching puddles at bay. Luke stayed there, shielding her long enough for the Jedi to regain her stamina. She quickly kissed him on the cheek and took off, once again agilely dodging the puddles.

Luke released his aura and stepped over the slow moving puddles as they reached towards him. He ignored their futile attempts and walked through the very cluttered and very active landscape. Jedi and darkside puddles moved about everywhere.

Luke saw another Jedi in one of the puddles and moved to help her, but, unlike the twilek, this one didn't struggle. She sat cross-legged in the puddle in a meditative trance, holding her ignited lightsaber in front of her face as the black creep slowly oozed up her legs, torso, and lightsaber hilt. The bottom edge of the blade started to become red, gradually replacing the blue as it moved upward.

Another wash from Luke's aura freed the Jedi from the creep, but the woman sat still and looked up at Luke with a cruel and twisted grin. Suddenly beads of the black goo oozed forth from her skin and began to create a new puddle with her in the center.

Luke suddenly realized that she was the source of the puddle…and that there was nothing he could do to help her, so he moved on.

It was strange how he moved along with so little effort while the other Jedi were forced to dart back and forth to evade the puddles. Luke stepped over or around them with ease. The black goo still tried to reach towards him, but it moved so slow it never really had a chance to reach him...unless Luke chose to stand still.

Luke considered that for a moment, sensing some significance. He glanced down at a nearby puddle…then suddenly realized that all the Jedi had disappeared. He stood alone in the field of puddles, all of which crept slowly in his direction.

He moved about slowly, offhandedly avoiding the puddles as he thought about the significance of it all. He could drive away the puddles momentarily, but they would always come after him. And yet they wouldn't be a threat so long as he kept moving.

_A Jedi is always in motion_.

Part of that made sense to Luke, but something inside wasn't satisfied. He kept walking across the volcanic plain until he spotted a lone Jedi in the distance. The white clad figure stood on the other side of an area dense with puddles. Luke knew that none of the other Jedi could have made it through, but he knew that the small sandy patches in between would be enough for him.

He stepped gingerly through the creep, not needing to pulse his aura. It moved so slow he had no trouble avoiding it. As he neared the lone Jedi the sandy spaces between the puddles disappeared and a solid sea of black stood, blocking his path.

"Well that's not really fair," Luke heard himself say. He gritted his teeth and force jumped into the center of the sea. He landed in the center, glowing as he came down. The black goo recoiled from his aura and a single spot of sand appeared where before there had been none.

Luke smiled, knowing that there was nothing the creep could do to stop him. He jumped again and landed on the far shore next to the other Jedi. He glanced back at the edge of the creep but it didn't move towards him. He was finally beyond its reach.

"About time," the Jedi said.

Luke looked at the white clad Jedi and realized that it was Jyr.

"Let's go, we've got work to do," Aer-ki said as he turned and ran off into a thick, green forest.

Luke glanced back at the volcanic landscape one last time then turned to follow his friend into the woods. He pulled through the outer branches and into the cool interior.

The buzz of Luke's alarm woke him from his dream. The Jedi opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, trying to hang onto as much of the dream as he could. A moment later he rolled out of bed and donned a fresh set of training clothes.

Luke went to obstacle course #1 and hit the start button as he tried to sort through the significance of his dream. Five hundred meters and twenty six force jumps later it finally hit him.

_I've become pure lightside_.

But that shouldn't have been possible. Everything he'd ever been taught about the force said the darkside would always be a threat to corrupt him.

_A Jedi is always in motion_, he reminded himself as he flashed back to the Jedi dodging the puddles.

Yet that hadn't been a problem for him. He'd gone farther than the other Jedi could, into the thickest of the darkside-infested region and it couldn't touch him so long as he burned with the lightside. But then there was the bit about him being out of reach of it altogether at the end. That didn't make sense to Luke but the rest of it did. The darkside was no longer a threat to him.

_If it can't corrupt you, it will try and kill you_, Luke thought, remembering what Jyr had told him, but that was a big difference in and of itself. There were plenty of non-darkside things, and people, that had wanted to kill Luke in the past and there would probably be a lot more in the future…the darkside would just have to get in line.

Luke ducked and rolled under a low overhang. When he came up on the other side he exuberantly jumped into the air and grabbed a foothold on an outstretched ledge meant for his hands.

_Free at last_, he thought as the last piece of a long sought after puzzle finally clicked into place. This is how a Jedi was meant to be…not a pawn of the darkside, letting it dictate what one could and couldn't do.

Luke thought of his fellow Jedi spread throughout the galaxy…it was doubtful they would ever be able to progress to this point. It had taken Luke all of 703 years, and he seriously doubted if any of them would be able to attain the level of self sufficiency necessary for that type of longevity.

_Then again, Ki didn't need seven centuries_, Luke reminded himself with a bit of chagrin. _To each his own..._


	12. Chapter 12

"Speaking for myself," Bes-no said via his hologram, "I feel much more connected to the universe. The force seems to flow through me easier now that my body is less…stagnant," the Jedi Consular said, inclining his head towards Luke. "I'm still not comfortable using strong emotions, but the active training you suggested has made a difference."

Luke nodded to his friend and turned to Zak's hologram. "How far along is the construction?"

"The Endor facility has twelve chambers up and running," the training Master reported. "It'll be another year before it's fully operational, but we're making good use of the new additions. The Padawans especially seem to be embracing the new challenges. The fact that their progress can now be objectively measured and compared to the others has elicited a new competitiveness in their training. So far it's been beneficial."

"Any recent problems with regards to the changes to the code?" Luke asked. Given what he'd learned from his training and research into the ancient archives, Luke had convinced the council to rewrite the current Jedi code. They'd also made numerous alterations throughout the order, specifically with regards to the training of younglings and Padawans.

The early reaction to the changes had been less than positive.

"It'll take time, Luke," Kas said from his right. "We're still having problems with overzealous Jedi. Their senses aren't refined enough to discern the more subtle distinctions, and they're growing impatient. Much of the information you sent us is beyond our current understanding, though a few of us have begun to make some progress," he said, inclining his head in the direction of Rata and Moto. The two Jedi Masters had shown little, if any, hesitancy toward Luke's new doctrine and had been eager to absorb the insights that he'd been relaying back to them.

Both had taken to their new classes quickly, relieved to find a subset of Jedi philosophy that more closely matched up with their personal mind-sets. Rata had been pleased to discover that a Jedi did not need to be equally skilled in all areas. Recently she'd relinquished a number of diplomatic assignments to colleagues more suited towards verbal negotiation and refocused her energies on additional physical training.

Moto had directed himself to more general combat training while focusing his secondary emphasis towards scientific research. He'd been intrigued by Luke's mention of a stunsaber and had been working hard to reproduce one from recently supplied blueprints.

Luke sighed. "I'd initially expected worse," he admitted as he felt Aer-ki enter the room behind him. "Keep up with your individual training and don't let yourselves be distracted by the progress, or lack of progress, of others. You can't teach what you don't know…for now, the best way you can assist the other Jedi is to show them that it _can_ be done."

"We'll keep at it, Luke," Rata said from beside him. "Let us know what else you find out. May the force be with you."

Luke nodded, and the twenty one holograms winked out. He turned to face Jyr.

"What is it?" Luke asked. Aer-ki had never interrupted him during a council meeting before.

"Three small colonies in the Erisis sector have gone dark, all within the last seven weeks," Aer-ki said in his usual monotone, but this time there was a touch of menace underneath.

Luke's eyes narrowed. "Is this it?"

"I don't know," Aer-ki said, referring to the distant threat on the periphery of his senses. "But I need to check it out either way. I'd like you to come along."

"Of course," Luke said, sensing a bit of impatience seeping through his friend's masking technique. Whatever was happening out on the rim was putting him on edge. "Now?"

"Now. The Camasi are prepping the ship. Grab what you need…along with this," Aer-ki said, producing a long, thin black box.

"What is it?" Luke asked, taking it.

"Something you've earned," his friend said cryptically.

Luke opened the box and pulled out a silver and gold lightsaber. He thumbed it on and a bright white blade emerged. "You told me that a white blade signified a rogue Jedi?"

"Not exactly," Aer-ki said, arms crossed over his chest. "My master was a rogue Jedi because he was pure lightside. The council at the time couldn't accept that fact, and even though they didn't kick him out of the order, they kept him away on assignments most of the time. He took up the white blade to signify that he was lightside incarnate. Him being a rogue was just a side effect."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "And you think I deserve this?"

Aer-ki smiled. "Not when you first arrived, but since then I think you've made the transition," he said, then eyed him skeptically. "Am I wrong?"

Now it was Luke that smiled. "A year ago I would have said yes, but recently I've come to the same conclusion. I don't know how it happened, it just did."

Aer-ki pointed to the hilt. "One touch activates, two deactivates. Letting go will also deactivate, so it's not really useful for throwing…

"…not that I would anymore," Luke added, remembering several sparring lessons when Aer-ki had made him pay dearly for letting go of his stunsaber. A quick force lockup of the flying saber and Aer-ki was on Luke administering numerous low power stun hits. After that Luke had seen the wisdom in keeping a good grip on his saber at all times. _This design probably reinforces that principle_.

Aer-ki grinned but didn't say anything. "On the lower end of the hilt is a retractable panel. Inside is a resistant knob that will switch between the lightsaber and the stunsaber. The slide level adjusts the strength of the stun blast. Full right is equivalent to a blaster rifle's stun bolt, full left will give a slight numbing jolt."

Luke depressed and slid the cover to the side. He twisted the knob and his white saber suddenly flashed yellow. "A Sentinel's blade," he commented. He twisted the knob again then deactivated the white blade.

"With a little practice you should be able to adjust the controls without removing the panel," Aer-ki said, moving towards the door. "Get your stuff and meet me in the hangar."

Luke glanced at the lightsaber again then headed for his quarters. He filled a duffle with odds and ends and dressed in a thin, cream-colored version of a Jedi robe that he'd gotten from the Camasi. He attached his new lightsaber to his belt, pulled the duffle over his shoulder, and hustled over to the hangar.

"The Infiltrator, Master Skywalker," Lilisol Re'sa said as Luke walked into the hangar and looked for Jyr among the two dozen ships that the Camasi diligently maintained.

"Thanks, Lil," Luke said to the dark furred humanoid. He jogged over to the low, blade-like craft that began to whine through an engine pre-start sequence. Luke stepped up the small, portside boarding ramp and closed it behind him. He tossed his duffle in the main hold and joined Aer-ki in the cockpit just as the stealth ship began to rise up on its repulsorlifts.

Luke slid into the copilot's seat a moment before the black, oversized shuttle emerged from the camouflaged hangar. It lifted up into the thin atmosphere of the white, sandy moon and made for orbit at full thrust. Once outside the gravity wells of both the moon and the green gas giant that it orbited, Aer-ki swiftly activated the ship's hyperdrive…and the two Jedi knights were on their way to a very secluded sector in the outer rim.


	13. Chapter 13

They emerged from hyperspace without incident in far orbit around Dekata II. A moment later the cockpit's passive sensor board pinged with distant contacts.

"Looks like three capital ships," Aer-ki said, studying the blurry profiles. While the ship remained in stealth mode it was the best resolution they were going to get, but it was still adequate for a position fix. "They're holding in geo-synch orbit over the colony. We shouldn't have any trouble slipping past," he said as he vectored them in towards the planet.

"We're landing?" Luke asked, a little surprised.

Aer-ki looked at him innocently. "Why shouldn't we be?"

"If those are hostiles," Luke said, gesturing out the viewport, "shouldn't we keep our distance?"

"There are only three, Luke. It'd take a lot more than that to blockade a planet of this size. And even if they had a thousand ships I'd be willing to bet we could make it through."

"It's the getting out again that concerns me," Luke emphasized.

"We'll be fine. I've done this sort of recon before," Aer-ki said as he plotted a course to low orbit. "We'll come in on the far side of the planet and work our way around in the upper atmosphere, that way we won't have to get close to them until we have surface terrain to obscure us."

Luke decided to take him at his word and kept his attention focused on the unidentified ships. As their approach brought them into a closer orbit the distorted sensor readings began to clear up and the droid processor that had been built into the ship finally had enough data to compile a crude wire-frame profile.

Both Luke and Aer-ki stared at the two plump starships along with the 'no match found' holographic tags floating beneath them. The larger of the two ships was cruiser class, approximately 800 meters long. The second smaller design was frigate class, running somewhere between 310 and 330 meters long.

"So much for pirates," Luke said as the ships disappeared behind the curve of the planet. "Are you sensing anything?"

"Trouble," Aer-ki said as they crossed the terminator onto the planet's night side. "Just not the trouble I was expecting."

"I guess I'll take that as good news," Luke said.

His fellow Jedi gripped the controls a bit tighter as they began to enter the planet's atmosphere. "Don't."

Jyr set them down in the forest on the far side of a small ridge opposite the colony site, squeezing the ship in between several trees before the landing struts finally hit dirt. It'd take them another twelve kilometers on foot to reach the human settlement, but both Jedi had agreed it was the only way to keep their approach hidden. They didn't know what kind of sensors the colony might have set up, and their ship's countermeasures weren't very effective at short range.

Aer-ki opened a wide locker in the aft compartment to reveal three sets of body armor. One was green and black…the same design that he'd worn the first day Luke had met him. The other two were gray with black highlights and sandy brown with white highlights.

Jyr pulled on a thin, black underlayer then began to attach the green and black armor to his body, piece by piece.

"Suddenly I feel underdressed," Luke commented as Aer-ki slid on his helmet.

The now armored Jedi opened another locker and pulled out a dark, flexible suit and tossed it to Luke. "Wearing armor without being used to it will slow you down too much. That combat suit should be more to your liking."

Aer-ki waited at the boarding hatch while Luke slipped out of his robe and pulled on the rugged, yet flexible body suit. He moved his arms around experimentally and found that he still had good range of motion. He looped a slim utility belt around his waist and attached his lightsaber before joining Jyr at the door. The ramp hissed closed behind them as the pair quickly slipped out into the nighttime forest, blending into the shadows as they darted between the trees and headed for the nearby ridge.

When they reached the top and found a break in the canopy both Jedi were taken aback by what they saw at the colony site.

The human-built structures had been demolished to piles of rubble, around which new buildings were being erected under the glare of towering floodlights by a legion of insectoids…a species that neither Skywalker nor Jyr could identify.

Aer-ki began taking detailed reconnaissance photos while Luke kept an eye on the surrounding area. A few minutes later Jyr stiffened behind his handheld scope.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

Aer-ki passed the palm-sized unit to Luke and directed his gaze to one of seventeen green-white structures. It was open on one end and he could see dozens of the multi-appendaged things gathered around a cluster of low racks. They appeared to be eating…

Luke felt the pit of his stomach fall out. "Those are human limbs," he said, pulling the recorder from his eyes.

Aer-ki took it back from him and continued his surveillance. "It looks like our best approach will be on the south side, near those rubble piles. They haven't cleared that part of the forest back much…I'd say no more than four meters."

"Do you sense anyone still alive down there?" Luke asked.

Jyr shook his head. "No, but we need to get closer to be sure. There are way too many lifeforms to sort out at this range."

"Can that droid brain fly the ship?"

"Yes," Aer-ki said, frowning. "I think they have a sentry line deployed in the forest."

Luke stretched out his senses. "I feel it, about a klick ahead. How do you plan to get by it?"

"Let's get a better look before we decide that," he said, stowing his recon gear in a slot on his utility belt.

The two Jedi slowly made their way through the dark forest, careful not to let their presence be detected. They moved within 150 meters of one of the insectoids and took cover behind a large deadfall.

"They're too closely spaced to slip by," Luke whispered.

"And I bet they can see in the dark too," Aer-ki added. "We're going to have to take a couple out."

"Some insect species operate with a telepathic hive mind," Luke reminded him. "If we take one out the others might know."

Aer-ki cringed beneath his helmet. "Possibly. If we stun them quickly they shouldn't be able to report anything back. If we try and sneak past and fail…they're sure to set off an alarm."

"I know. I just wish there was a better way."

"I don't suppose you could sneak by them?"

Luke shook his head. "Not a chance. My camouflage skills have improved, but not nearly that far. And it would do nothing to hide my scent."

"Ok, we'll do it the hard way then. We have to do this simultaneously, and even if we pull it off…"

"…we'll be on the clock. Remind me why we're not killing them?" Luke asked, still a bit sick to his stomach.

"If they find them unconscious, without a wound, they won't be sure what happened to them. If we kill them it'll be too obvious, plus the smell of blood…"

"At least there's a reason…that's good enough for me," Luke said, feeling a little better.

"I know how you feel," Aer-ki said quietly, his hand slipping to one of his lightsabers. "We can't let this pass, but we need to be smart about when and where to hit them."

"I know I shouldn't feel this way…" Luke started to say.

"You should, actually. It's your past that's clouding your thoughts. What were you told to do in a situation like this?"

Luke felt his jaw flexing. "Forgive and forget…what's done is done…look for a diplomatic way to rectify the situation."

Jyr's helmet nodded. "I thought as much. Your gut instinct says that's wrong and your emotions are overcompensating in the other direction. Put your conflict with those idiotic notions aside and focus on the here and now."

Luke closed his eyes and blew out a slow breath, bleeding off his conflicting emotions. Underneath he felt a steady resolve to do something. He focused solely on that emotion and looked up at Jyr. "So…what do we _do_ about the here and now?"

Aer-ki pointed a gloved finger at the ground. "Search for survivors…recon the area…take samples," he said, as he extended a third finger. "If they try and stop us we fight our way off the planet, killing any that get in our way. They've just declared war on all humans and there's no point in imagining otherwise."

Luke nodded. "I'm good with that. Thanks."

Aer-ki turned his attention back to the sentry line guards. "Take the one on the right."

Luke positioned himself on the other end of the deadfall and felt his friend try and connect to him through the force. He responded and sent a portion of his senses and situational awareness to Jyr through the battlemeld technique that they'd been devoting a significant amount of their training on during the past year. Luke, in return, received a rough feel of Aer-ki's body position and surroundings as they waited for the right moment to strike.

A few minutes later it came. Both Jedi sprang from cover and sprinted towards their targets while they were momentarily obscured from their line of sight. They tore their way through the underbrush and closed with a smaller version of the insectoids, barely a meter high.

Aer-ki felt Luke ready to strike…but he wasn't in position yet. He compensated by force leaping hands forward toward the squat creature now emerging from behind a thick tree trunk. He felt and heard Luke's blade snap to life, and saw the creature flinch in response to the sound just before Aer-ki ignited his blue blade half a meter in front of its face.

Jyr extinguished his blade before he hit the ground and rolled into a crouch. He heard nothing, not even Luke's blade, and extended his senses towards the nearest insectoid on the sentry line. He monitored it for more than two minutes, simultaneously observing the one nearest Luke thanks to the battlemeld. He felt Luke's urge to move and sent back his approval. He took one last look at the small, six legged sentry and met Luke some fifty meters away between the two stunned creatures.

"They're different," Luke whispered.

"I know," Aer-ki said as they pushed their way through thorn-filled underbrush. "It's either a subset of their species, or two species working together."

Luke was careful to keep the thorns away from his exposed face, while his combat suit was doing a good job of deflecting the little razor sharp needles. "I think we're in the clear."

"For now," Aer-ki reminded him. "We have no idea how long they're going to stay stunned or how long before they'll be missed. Let's make this quick."


	14. Chapter 14

Luke and Aer-ki stopped just inside the edge of the woods where they had a decent view of the debris piles through the underbrush. They kept to the deep shadows cast by the overhead floodlights as they crept forward toward the vast open area that had been clear-cut by the insectoids. Jyr took some more reconnaissance photos then signaled Luke to go.

With a quickness born from repetitive training drills and a touch of the force, Luke zipped across the short opening and took cover between the 15-meter high piles of rubble that had once been the colony. Aer-ki joined him a moment later and together they wound their way through the miniature mountains until they neared one of the partially constructed buildings.

A thin, continuous stream of workers carried small satchels to and from the site while others in and on the building were assembling it piece by piece with a variety of specialized tools. Luke thought he saw what looked like an arc welder, but most of the tools were alien in appearance, though they appeared to be tech heavy.

The small green-white tiles that the transport lines were delivering were melted into two-meter wide squares on site before being attached to a bone-white frame. The buildings, both those fully constructed and the ones in progress all had a linear symmetry, but with odd, unrepetitive angles. Most had vertical walls that formed five-sided buildings, but the angles and length of those walls varied greatly. Some had additional structures on their rooftops that also exhibited the five-sided design.

"No humans in there," Aer-ki said, gesturing to the nearest building directly in front of the debris field.

"Most of them seem to move on predetermined patterns," Luke commented as he looked around as much he could without breaking cover. "I don't see any mobile sentries."

"Keep an eye out. I'm moving to that partial structure, then to that complete one. Stay here," Aer-ki said, taking off.

Luke stooped down and half watched. He focused his senses on the nearby lifeforms and their movement patterns, waiting for a deviation that could mean they were onto them.

Aer-ki was back inside of three minutes. "They're clean," he said, looking around. He pointed to the other side of the debris field. "That way."

The picked their way around the piles and the pieces that had fallen from them until they neared the northwestern edge of the dumping ground. "Fighters?" Luke guessed.

Aer-ki nodded. "Two transports, too…and a turret."

Luke followed his line of sight to the tower fifty meters in front of them. "That thing?"

"I think so," he said, not quite sure. The building designs weren't easily identifiable, but this one sat right on the edge of the landing field. A couple of protrusions extended from the top, looking out over the wispy green fighters that were parked on the dark green ferrocrete-like platform imbedded in the damp ground.

"If it's that big it's probably designed for anti-air defense," Luke commented. "You think it'll notice us?"

Jyr was silent for a moment. He looked at the flow of insectoids meandering to and from the construction sites on their right, and the flow in and out of an underground bunker on their left. If they wanted to move further into the complex they had to go by the turret tower. He pulled out his tiny scope and examined the tower in detail.

"I don't see any viewports," he said slowly, "but they have to have someway to track targets…I just hope you're right about it being anti-air only." He looked at the turret and the squat building twenty meters to the left. "Sprint to that wall, then to the base of the turret. If that doesn't raise an alarm we move between the fighters over to that large building."

Large was an understatement. It dwarfed the others, standing 30 meters high and running 300 meters wide on the side facing the landing field. Three different lines of insectoids flowed in and out of the facility, carrying cargoes to the sites and returning empty handed. Luke guessed it was some type of manufacturing plant.

"I'll go first," Luke offered.

Jyr stood beside him and noticed a bit of shimmer surround Luke's body just before he jumped from behind cover. He watched him cover the 100 meters without incident, all the time feeling like his eyes were playing tricks on him. Luke's camouflage abilities had indeed improved.

Aer-ki sprinted after him a moment later and ducked down next to Luke alongside the building, looking up at the spire in front of them that held what looked like two turbolaser mounts. They both held perfectly still along the wall waiting for something to happen.

But nothing did. They had been exposed to the invaders' line of sight for at least two seconds, yet fortunately none of the distant workers had noticed. The two Jedi darted over to the base of the tower then began working their way across the landing pad, fighter to fighter.

Luke ducked under a fighter's stubby wing while Aer-ki knelt down on the other side of the fighter, tucked up against the thin fuselage. They both watched the lines of nearby workers coming out of the massive building that was now directly ahead of them.

"Roof?" Luke asked.

"Wait…" Aer-ki said. "On your left."

Luke looked around…then sucked in a quick breath and froze in place. _A sentry_.

It was a ways off, heading to the other side of the complex, but it was going to pass directly in front of them.

"Stay put," Aer-ki whispered as he wedged himself in between a wing and another protrusion near the fighter's prow. Luke tucked in as well and made use of his limited force camouflage ability. All the sentry had to do was take a good look in their direction and they'd be made.

Both Jedi held their breath, motionless. Slowly the four legged, two armed creature walked by the rear of the fighter, barely eight meters away. Luke noticed a long cylinder attached to one of the insectoids arms. _Blaster…_

_I see it_, Aer-ki replied telepathically.

The sentry methodically moved on, its spear-like legs leaving small, pointed imprints in the ground. Judging by the number already present, it must have been retracing a predetermined patrol route.

_Another one_, Luke noticed.

Aer-ki grimaced. The security around the landing pad must have been tighter by design. He could sense, but not see the new sentry tracking the same path as the first one. With Luke's shared senses he determined they were about a minute and a half apart.

_Get ready_, Aer-ki warned. They had to wait for just the right moment. _Very quietly…Go_.

The Jedi tiptoed their way out from beside the fighter, crossing the open gap barely 15 meters behind the first sentry. They jogged to the far wall where Luke jumped upwards in a flash. When he started to slow about halfway up Jyr force lifted him the rest of the way. Luke set himself on the flat rooftop then caught Aer-ki at the top of his leap and pulled him up and over. They backed away from the edge and pressed themselves flat against the roof, listening and feeling for a sign that they'd been seen.

A minute later they figured they were in the clear, but as they started to ease backwards from the dropoff they felt the second sentry stop approximately where they had crossed from the landing pad.

"Footprints," Aer-ki whispered.


	15. Chapter 15

The insectoid sentry followed the slightly sunken footprints to the wall and clicked its mandibles in frustration. It turned and followed the oblong prints back to the landing pad just as another two insectoids burst out of an adjacent building and ran/hopped over to its location.

The three studied the footprints, conversing in a wide range of high pitched clicks as the two Jedi listened from the rooftop. After thirty or so seconds of debate another half dozen insectoids emerged from what must have been a barracks and supplemented the patrols. The three guards below spread out, the first returned to its patrol circuit while another began wandering among the half-dozen parked fighters. The third scurried back to the 'barracks.'

"They've increased their patrols," Luke commented as they pulled back from the edge and rolled up into a crouch, sitting on their heels. "I guess they thought we came down from the roof instead of going up."

"Maybe," Aer-ki said, his senses still focused on the landing pad and the new patrols. "Or maybe they don't know what to make of it. Either way we're going to have to avoid that pad."

"I'm not sensing any humans in this building either," Luke said, standing up and walking with Jyr across the massive rooftop.

"No," Aer-ki confirmed, "and we're going to have a hard time reaching some of those buildings. Hold up," he said, dropping to a knee.

"What?" Luke asked.

"We came for samples. Might as well get one now," the armored Jedi said, pulling a set of small tools out of another pouch on his belt. He activated a small laser scalpel and began to cut a tiny splinter of the roof material free. It was made of the same green/white panels that comprised the walls of this and every other structure in the compound.

Aer-ki slipped the sample into a small vile and secured it and his tools in his belt before standing. "Any information we can gather may help."

"What else do you need?" Luke asked.

"A tissue sample would be nice," he said, pulling out his surveillance equipment again. He took several more photos of the rooftop and the surrounding area before they reached the far side of the five-sided complex.

"What about some of that?" Luke asked as they both stooped down near the edge and looked out at another line of workers carrying some type of ore in repulsor sleds. They were coming out of one of the underground bunkers.

"Mine," Aer-ki said. "I bet most of these buildings were manufactured by materials found onsite." He spied more mounds in the distance, but instead of being formed by rubble these were comprised of dirt, apparently having come out of the small dome-shaped bunker. "I'll also need a soil sample from those," he said, pointing off into the distance.

"Is that about forty meters?" Luke asked.

Aer-ki sighted the ledge of the nearby building with his scope, then the ledge in front of them. "Forty three," he confirmed. "Too far to jump. We'll have to link up," he said, moving back from the edge so he could get a running start.

Luke moved forward and scrutinized the approach. There were no nearby patrols, just several lines of workers off in the distance. He waved Jyr forward.

Aer-ki accelerated into a half sprint and jumped when he reached the edge, getting a significant force push from Luke in the process. He pumped his arms and legs, trying to stay upright in mid air, then used the force to slow his descent on the way down.

He landed with a muted crunch on the opposite building with ten meters to spare. Setting himself, he gave Luke a mental summons. He caught his fellow Jedi in midair and guided him to a soft landing next to him.

Luke touched down and reached out with his senses. "Nothing here either," he reported mournfully.

"Can you snag one of the rocks?" Aer-ki asked.

Luke nodded. "You go for the soil sample. I'll meet you between the mounds."

"Stay sharp," Jyr warned, running off across the rooftop.

Luke turned to his left and worked his way back towards the mine entrance. He crawled to the edge of the roof and dropped down to the ground in a thin column of shadow that paralleled the building. He moved along it as far as he could, then stopped and studied the line of workers filing in and out of the mine entrance. They were the only ones in position to spot him, and they seemed to be focusing their compound eyes solely on the ground in front of them.

Luke summoned the best shimmer he could and sprinted across the open yard. He dropped in behind some small mounds of stick-like components barely twenty meters away from the entrance. Luke sat there for a moment then used the force to make one of the emerging repulsor sleds shudder as if it had hit something…while he pried one tiny rock loose.

It hovered over the insectoid's head while it briefly examined the sled then moved on. Luke lifted the rock into the air and brought it toward him in a high arc, landing it some ten meters away. No reaction came from the workers…so he slowly dragged it through the dirt into his outstretched hand.

He palmed the rough bluish/gray ore and snagged one of the 20cm-long components from the pile before heading northwest between various crates and bins, most of which were empty. Finally he sprinted across another open space to the dozen or so dirt piles.

Aer-ki met him at the edge and glanced down at the yellow/green component in his hand. "What's that?"

"A sample," Luke said, shrugging. "They had a pile full of them."

"I checked out the far building…no lifesigns," Jyr said, pointing back over his shoulder. "It looks like they're cutting down and processing the vegetation. The trees go in and some pulp-like liquid comes out in those small sacks."

"You don't want to grab one of those?" Luke asked.

"No, we can only carry so much," Aer-ki said, his helmeted head glancing back deeper into the compound. "Follow me."

The two Jedi weaved around the mounds and crossed to the edge of the building that Aer-ki had mentioned. They stood at the base for a moment then Jyr gave Luke a 'thumbs up' signal. With the rock and 'stick' cradled in either hand, Luke jumped to the rooftop with a force assist.

Once Jyr made it up they walked to the center of the roof and took a knee. They where concealed in partial shadow, the overhead floodlights for this section were located on a tower ten meters to their left and shown down in front of them, but not on them. From here they had a clear view of the northern section of the compound…including another turret tower at the extreme northeast edge.

"This is as close as we're going to get," Aer-ki said, referring to the remaining buildings they had yet to search for human survivors, which included the eating area where they'd spied the human body parts.

Luke stretched out his senses toward the buildings one at a time. This would have been easier had there not been numerous insectoids scurrying around inside and around the buildings. One by one Luke found them devoid of any survivors…the humans were all dead.

"If they're underground we can't get to them," Aer-ki said.

Luke frowned, then stretched out his senses to the nearest bunker. He felt a thin line of lifeforms descending lower and lower…then they were beyond the range of his senses.

Suddenly Luke sensed a stirring throughout the camp.

"I think they found the sentries," Aer-ki said, slipping to the northern edge of the building. "Time to get that tissue sample and go. Keep an eye out for the armed guards...I'm going to bag one of the workers coming from the forest."

"Right behind you," Luke said as his partner dropped over the ledge and out of sight. He heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber and a cascade of loud clicks and shrieking sounds from below.


	16. Chapter 16

Aer-ki slashed through two adjacent insectoids with a single swipe of his blue blade, dropping both to the ground unconscious. He ran forward, striking down three more in succession while the rest of the workers broke lines and fled, clicking away angrily.

Luke dropped down alongside and covered him with his white blade while Aer-ki withdrew a small cylinder and pressed it against the thorax of the nearest insectoid. A red, then yellow light illuminated on the opposite end of the cylinder. Finally a green light lit, indicated that the microscopic tissue sample was secure. He stuffed the extractor back into its slot on his belt as Luke's blade deflected a blue bolt into the ground a couple meters to his left.

Aer-ki looked up and saw a group of guards run/hopping in their direction. A few more long range shots were fired but they all went wide. "Follow me," he instructed.

Luke sprinted after his armored friend, cradling both the rock sample and the odd component in his left hand while his right held his lightsaber between him and his enemies. They reached the woods quickly with their force enhanced speed, but the insectoids weren't far behind, bounding meters with a single jump, far faster than an ordinary human could have moved.

"Aren't we going the wrong way?" Luke asked as they darted between trees.

"Do you really want to lead them back to the ship?" Aer-ki yelled back as they ran northwest.

"We can take them," Luke suggested as he scrapped through some underbrush.

"Not yet," Aer-ki said, weaving back and forth seemingly at random. The insectoids were still on their tail, but they were having some trouble moving through the dense vegetation as fast as the Jedi. In fact, it seemed that Luke and Aer-ki were starting to get away from them.

"There," Aer-ki said, moving towards a dense part of the forest canopy that had little underbrush beneath. "Drop your samples where you won't step on them and get ready to fight. There are about twenty of them," he said as they arrived in the 'clearing.'

It was pitch black until Luke reactivated his lightsaber and found a thick rooted tree to hide his stash under. He wedged it between the roots and the trunk then turned back to face the approaching swarm.

Luke saw Aer-ki withdraw his second saber and touch the two hilts together with a soft click. The Jedi activated and spun the now double-bladed lightsaber around experimentally.

"Separate," Jyr said, moving off to the right as the brush in front of them was torn apart by a blue blaster bolt. Luke deflected it upwards without trouble, then moved farther to the left. Both Jedi held their ground, white blades blazing when they felt additional creatures moving behind them.

Luke swung around and sliced one of the smaller insectoids in half as it jumped at him from behind. The two halves fell to the ground just as another of the sentry line creatures lept out of the dark underbrush three meters to his right. Another fast slash and simultaneous sidestep kept him free of its claws. He detected and killed another one just as the larger guards caught up to them, blasters firing as they emerged into the 'clearing.'

While Luke held his ground Aer-ki charged forward, deflecting two quick shots into the canopy before he was in their midst. He swung both blades with short, choppy strikes, mowing the insectoids down as they refocused their attention away from Luke.

Sensing the opportunity, Luke rushed forward and took one down with a redirected blaster bolt. He stabbed the insectoid's crumpled corpse just to be safe, then ducked to the side as another one slashed at him with its sharp tail. It rotated around a full 360 degrees then raised its forearm and fired another bolt at point blank range.

Luke dodged under its line of sight and stepped forward…cutting off its gun arm before reversing his slash and decapitating the creature. The Jedi stepped away from the body, not wanting to get his feet tangled amongst the multiple limbs, as he felt another meter-high creature approaching on his left.

When he finally saw it he picked it up with the force and threw it into two of the guards that were firing at Aer-ki from a distance. The distraction gave Jyr enough time to close in on them. Three lightning-fast slashes and the insectoids dropped in pieces.

Suddenly the forest was silent, save for another short insectoid approaching from a distance. The Jedi could hear the soft rustling sound as it moved through the brush. Luke moved forward to meet up with it while Aer-ki knelt next to one of the dead insectoid guards and removed the blaster from its arm.

"Another sample?" Luke asked after having dispatched the last threat in the area.

Aer-ki returned both lightsabers to his hip slots and nodded. "Grab yours."

Luke had to think for a moment, mentally retracing his movements before he found the right tree. He retrieved the two items then followed Aer-ki off towards the northeast. They ran through another two or three kilometers of trees, rocks, and hills before they heard the distinctive whine of aircraft engines.

Neither Jedi said anything, knowing full well what that meant. Aer-ki turned due east and the pair made their way back towards the ridge, over which they would find their starship…hopefully before the insectoids did.

They didn't encounter any more threats on the ground, but by the time they'd reached their ship the skies had filled with more than a dozen fighters flying search patterns. Apparently they'd called down reinforcements from orbit…or else they had another base somewhere on the planet.

Aer-ki lowered the boarding ramp and waved Luke in. He took one more look at the sky then stepped inside, securing the ramp behind him. He slid off his helmet and wiped a few beads of sweat from his eyes as he moved to the cockpit. Both his helmet and the insectoid version of a blaster rifle ended up in his equipment locker as he passed it by, but he wasted no time in warming up the engines and running through a quick pre-flight checklist.

Luke slid into the copilot's seat and monitored the passive sensors. They couldn't detect anything on the other side of the ridge, but they did show two fighters moving in a zigzag pattern further to the southeast. "Does this ship have any weapons?" Luke asked.

"Just a forward laser cannon," Aer-ki said as he activated the Infiltrator's repulsorlift coils. "Won't do us much good if those fighters are as agile as they look."

The black ship rose from the nighttime forest and slid over the treetops heading northeast. As soon as it had cleared the canopy every single fighter in the sky redirected towards it. "Punch it," Luke insisted as a few sporadic blue laser bolts flashed past the canopy and exploded nearby trees.

Aer-ki kicked in the maximum thrust and raised shields…which drew power away from the electronic countermeasures package that gave the stealth ship its wraithlike skills. The obviously experienced pilot kept the lower hull a few meters above the forest canopy and held to geographic depressions and valleys as much as he could as he tried to shake the faster insectoid fighters.

A small jolt ran through the ship as one of the laser bolts hit the shields.

"Not very powerful," Luke mentioned as several more blasts flashed past. "Guess they make up for it in volume."

"How many do we have left?" Aer-ki asked, not taking his eyes off the terrain for a second.

"Five still with us."

"Alright…" Aer-ki muttered as he redirected the ship towards a distant mountain range. Their new straight line flight allowed a few more shots to hit the shields. "Hold on," Aer-ki warned suddenly.

Luke was thrown forward as the Infiltrator decelerated with surprising speed. Before Luke could pry himself off the forward console another pair of shots hit the upper shields then a dark wave spread over the forward viewport. "What just…"

"We're underwater," Aer-ki said as a new diagram and set of controls illuminated on the pilot's main console.

"Is the ship made to do this?" Luke asked. He couldn't see anything through the viewport, and the passive sensors were equally dark.

"Sometime you need to hide where others can't go," Aer-ki said as he used specialized underwater maneuvering jets to move them north underneath the lake's surface.

"And this helps us how?" Luke asked.

"If we can put enough distance between us and those fighters our stealth systems should be effective again."

"Ok…and if this doesn't work?"

Aer-ki shrugged. "We make a run for orbit the hard way."

Half an hour later the Infiltrator gently lifted out of the water to find not five, but a dozen of the green fighters hovering over the far end of the lake. For a moment Luke thought they'd gone undetected, but the closest fighter suddenly peeled off and moved in their direction.

Jyr didn't hesitated and moved them off to the north, quickly accelerating to full speed. He kept to the ground again and stopped Luke from activating the shields. "Keep the countermeasures active…I think I just need to increase our lead a little."

Luke retracted his hand from the control board and leaned back in his seat. The sensor board showed the single fighter on their tail with the others following sluggishly behind. Little by little the distance back to the fighter increased as it had a harder and harder time tracking the humans' movements. Each hesitation in course correction meant an addition few meters lead for the Infiltrator…which eventually added up to the countermeasures' minimal effective distance. One last course correction that the insectoid ship couldn't detect and it passed further to the north as the Jedi headed east, still at treetop level.

Aer-ki kept them there for a long time before finally breaking for orbit. Once they were out of the planet's gravity well he deactivated the stealth systems and pulsed the ship's active sensors. A flood of new data on the insectoid capital ships appeared on the display screens, showing in detail the enemy ships as they suddenly turned to track the new contact. Aer-ki pulled back the hyperspace levers and the ships disappeared from sensors.

"Was that wise?" Luke asked. "They could still follow us."

"They were still well within the gravity well," Aer-ki said confidently. "They won't catch us."


	17. Chapter 17

Jyr hadn't said a word in the four hours since they'd entered hyperspace. Luke hadn't prodded, sensing a great deal of thinking going on beneath the Jedi's focused, yet serene features as he watched the blue/white swirl of hyperspace out the forward viewport. Then, for no apparent reason, he turned to face Luke in the copilot's seat.

"It's time I let you in on a few secrets I've been keeping from you."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"I realized long ago that the threat my master had foreseen was beyond my ability to deal with individually. I was going to need help, so…a century ago I created the Shadow Alliance and have been developing it ever since."

Luke frowned. He didn't know where Jyr was going with this. "Go on."

"It's grown into a secret alliance of about 2,000 star systems…I know that's not a lot in galactic terms, but it's given me a decent resource base to work with."

Luke held up a hand. "Wait a minute. 2,000 systems, how come I've never heard of this Alliance? That's an awful lot of systems to go unnoticed."

"They haven't gone unnoticed," Jyr corrected. "You're probably familiar with a lot of them. Most belong to the preeminent powers…yet a portion of their planetary governments have allied with me in secret. We've been working in the shadows to develop a hidden defense force that will be ready to lead the fight when the threat finally emerges."

"Defense force?" Luke asked. "As in an army and navy?"

"Yes," Jyr confirmed. "Our numbers are small compared to the Corellian Alliance or Chiss Concordat militaries, but I've made sure our equipment, tactics, and training are superior…all the while we're slowly adding additional forces and systems. Our fleet has no warship larger than a cruiser, but our cruisers have been able to hold their own against an Imperial-class star destroyer in simulations…and occasionally defeat one depending on their modular load."

"What size are we talking about?" Luke asked, seriously curious. He'd always assumed Aer-ki had spent his years in secluded training, yet he should have known better. His friend wasn't likely to stay put and do nothing to combat the threat that he'd been subtly implying to be a galactic invasion…possibly even from one of the major powers who, decades ago, had unofficially entered into a galactic wide nonaggression pact. It was no wonder Jyr had been developing a secret military to give himself a force to fight back with…he _was_ a Jedi Guardian after all.

"Diamond shaped," Jyr described, "with the longer axis just over 1,000 meters. Two sections of the cruiser are modular and can be replaced with mission specific components, such as extra power and shield generators, hangar bays, weapons batteries, gravity well generators…whatever we need. It requires a layover at a shipyard to swap out modules, but the multitasking capability of the fleet is essential, given that we don't know what kind of threat we'll be facing."

Luke nodded in agreement. "What else?"

"We have two other warship designs…a destroyer and frigate. Both also have modular sections, and all three ship designs have heavy shields, armor, and above standard engines. We can hit hard and run…with the emphasis on _running_. I don't think we're going to have the luxury of being able to sit still and slug it out. We're going to need to be able to fight on the move. To that end our shipyards are also mobile. We're not dependent on any location specific facilities…but we will defend our home systems up until the time we're forced to pull out."

Luke frowned. "You're expecting to lose?"

Jyr nodded slowly. "And we've prepared accordingly. We have hidden bases spread throughout the galaxy and mass evacuation plans for all our systems. We'll kick the huttpuss out of any invading force before we give up a planet, but when we do it'll be on our terms and it won't be as big of a blow to us as the enemy might expect."

Luke rubbed his chin in concentration. "Are you planning to coordinate with the existing powers, or are you going strictly on your own?"

"We'll pool resources as much as we can, but I've made sure we're not _dependent_ on outside help."

"Tell me more about these ships," Luke insisted. "I know the Star Destroyer design has persisted this long because it's considered by many to be as good as it gets for cruiser class vessels. How did you design a smaller ship that's comparable?"

"We specialized," Jyr said simply. "Our cruiser carries no troops, it has a tiny hangar bay and the interior living space is severely restricted for a ship of its size. It operates with less than five percent of a typical crew compliment, supplemented by spider maintenance droids. The interior hull space has been crammed full of machinery in order to make the smaller ship more powerful. It doesn't even have repulsorlift capability…we couldn't make room to fit the coils on the ship. It's strictly a naval engagement vessel, but within that narrow mission profile it's very tenacious."

"What about fighters?" Luke asked.

"It can carry fighters if the modular sections are hangar bays…but the cruiser, destroyer, and frigate designs are all capable of defending themselves from starfighter attack without the need for a defensive screen of their own fighters. In addition to the turbolaser batteries they carry, the ships' hulls are covered with laser cannons designed specifically to shoot down fighters and missiles."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "They're also anti-starfighter ships?"

"Yes," Jyr confirmed. "I wanted them to be as self-reliant as possible."

"What type of fighters do you use? Tie? A-wing? Torch?"

"No…we developed our own starfighter, designated as a Raptor. It has the speed of a Rim League Torch and the maneuverability of a Tie Defender, but, like our capital ships, its weapons are also modular. Our techs can swap out the nodes in under eight minutes if necessary…so we've got some degree of flexibility when the fighters go into combat on a carrier."

"Also," Jyr said, leaning forward a bit. "We've developed a droid controlled version of the fighter that can be remotely flown by pilots safely on the ground or protected behind the shields of a capital ship. I'd prefer if you didn't let that become common knowledge, else the opposition will try and find a way to jam our remote control link."

"What happens if they do?" Luke asked, impressed. If Aer-ki's fleet could lose fighters without losing pilots it could give them a distinct advantage over the course of a long, drawn-out war where personnel attrition could rise to staggering numbers. Also, it would open up some additional tactics that only the old Empire would have used with manned fighters. Luke was glad that nightmare had finally been eradicated from the galaxy.

"The fighters revert to droid control and carry out the orders relayed to them over the standard comm frequencies or preprogrammed into their hard drives."

"Are all your fighters like that?"

Jyr shook his head. "No…we've found it to be advantageous in certain circumstances, but not all. We'll use drone fighters to scout hostile areas or to draw out an ambush, but manned fighters still perform better on average than remotely flown craft…though they both still outperform droid flown fighters."

Luke nodded. "I doubt that will ever change."

"We also have a hybrid fighter/capital ship known as a gunship. It's eighty meters long and useful in both space and ground combat. Unlike all our other craft it's not modular. It carries an array of laser cannons and one small continuous turbolaser cannon useful in space combat as well as antipersonnel ops on the surface. It's also designed to be an anti-fighter craft, and sports starfighter-sized torpedoes and/or missiles in the hundreds. It has twenty individual launch tubes that can fire individually at fighters or en mass against capital ships…though once it runs dry it's little more than a heavily armed freighter."

"Interesting approach," Luke said, trying to take in all the revelations at once. "Is the Shadow Alliance defense force naval only, or do you have ground forces as well?"

Jyr nodded. "We do, but they're deployed from specialized transports, not from our warships. We actually refitted an old starship design to fit our purposes…comes from even before your time. It was originally used by a commerce guild called the Trade Federation. It's three kilometers wide with a center sphere surrounded by a thick ring. The sphere can detach and land on the surface, unload troops or cargo, and makes for an instantaneous, armed and shielded command post."

"The orbital ring has enough shield generators and weapons to defend itself, but it's not a warship. It serves as an orbital starfighter base and contains the ship's hyperspace engines. We've only built a handful of these Assault Ships, and they're primarily being used as prototypes as we continue to refine the design."

"You've been busy," Luke commented when he'd finished. "Don't suppose you started a new Jedi Order while you were at it?"

Jyr smiled. "No…that's one area I haven't delved into. Figured I'd just help you get the existing one up to snuff."

Luke glanced at the nav board. "Is Telos one of yours?"

"Yes, it's a regional command center and one of our more heavily fortified worlds…though the populous and most of its government doesn't have a clue."

Luke nodded in understanding. No point in revealing your presence until absolutely necessary. That way no one can prepare to oppose you…or object to you being on their planet. Surprise did have its advantages. "What's going to happen when we get there?"

"I'll confer with the other Warlords and offload our intel to the base personnel for analysis," Jyr said as his voice lowered almost into a growl. "Then I'm taking a strike force back to the Dekata system. We're going to smash that base and see what kind of response we draw from their friends…I have a feeling there's a lot more wherever they came from."


	18. Chapter 18

Luke followed Jyr down the boarding ramp and into the Shadow Alliance underground complex buried deep beneath Telos's southern mountain range. A dozen or so personnel met them at the bottom of the ramp and inundated Aer-ki with updates and status reports which he received without breaking stride enroute to who knows where.

Luke didn't say a word, merely following a step behind his friend who had slipped into 'leader' mode the moment he had exited the ship. His emotions had steeled, his words became short and precise, and he headed through the large hangar bay with an impatience that Luke couldn't pin down. Though he was walking, Jyr's subordinates had to scramble to keep up with him as they recited the contents of multiple datapads in hand.

One by one the dark uniformed personnel delivered their information and departed, until Jyr finally stopped short of a turbolift as the final individual, a tech by Luke's estimation, rattled out a series of numbers regarding some new prototype. Aer-ki nodded, gave a few instructions, then stepped into the lift along with Luke.

"What?" Aer-ki asked quietly when he noticed Luke staring at him.

"Nothing," Luke answered, shaking his head innocently. "Just a side of you I've never seen."

Jyr raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

* * *

Luke stood, leaning his back against a wall in the corridor outside the chamber that even a Jedi of Luke's stature was forbidden to enter.

He actually didn't mind, and just waited patiently for Aer-ki to do whatever it was he needed to do. Meanwhile Luke tried to soak in everything around him, and oddly found his mind flashing back to his time with the Rebel Alliance.

He glanced up at the high, blue tinted ceiling that doubled as an illumination panel. Perhaps it wasn't quite the same. The Rebel Alliance had been ragtag and relied heavily on improvisation out of necessity…this base felt more refined, and the personnel moved about with an easy of movement that belied efficiency rather than fear and desperation.

Luke glanced at a woman dressed in a bright orange flight suit and grinned. _Then again, it seems some things never change. _

* * *

"We've detected their presence in 16 additional star systems within the surrounding sectors…and we still have more scouts enroute that haven't reported back yet," Lord Darr said via his life-size hologram.

"We also have reports of similar contact in seven additional systems spread out across the galaxy," Lord Sevis, the former Corellian Admiral, added.

"It's beginning to look more and more like an invasion," Warlord Darr suggested, "but we have yet to locate the source."

Jyr nodded. "I brought back a DNA sample that might help with tracking down this species…but for now our main focus should be on how we're going to deal with this threat. I'm taking an attack force back to the Dekata system to eliminate the insectoids' base there and the few warships they have in orbit."

One of the other holograms partially stepped out of view as he consulted with someone on his ship. A moment later he stepped back with a disturbed look on his face. "Lord Jyr, one of my scouts has just reported back with new intel. You may want to rethink your assault plans," Lord Revoris said as he transmitted the data.

A hologram materialized inside the ring formed by the Warlords' holograms and floated directly in front of Jyr. It was the visual record from an Infiltrator scout craft in orbit around a green gas giant. It showed a splattering of white streaks against the planet until the view zoomed in. Those white streaks resolved into hundreds of insectoid starships in close formation around a single vessel the length of a Super Star Destroyer, but with a much larger silhouette. It 'plumped' from the center whereas an SSD was thin and sleek.

Jyr's eyes narrowed. "Where is this?"

"One sector away from the Detaka System," Lord Revoris stated, making his point clear.

Lord Anet visibly stirred. "We can't take them on in those numbers…we'll have to isolate them." The ex-smuggler turned to face Jyr. "Best you move quickly before they can reinforce their position."

"I concur," Lord Etis said, nodding. "We need to know what their ships are capable of in small scale combat before we attempt any large scale opposition."

"What word have we had from the Corellians?" Jyr asked, looking at Sevis.

"They know nothing as of yet. The incursions appear to be taking place along the rim and haven't penetrated far enough for the Corellian Alliance to be affected."

"The Rim League has been notified," Lord Corodel reported from Jyr's left, "and as of two days ago they've only detected two incursions, though our reports increase that number to seven, including the Dekata system. They've dispatched a pair of Mon Cal cruisers to investigate."

"Relay Lord Revoris's new data to them immediately," Jyr ordered. "They may be in for more than they can handle."

Corodel nodded. His operational region was centered in the Rim League and he'd developed a number of discrete contacts with both the League and the Mon Calamari.

"The Republic has also been hit in an outlying system," Lord Trevel revealed, "but RIS headquaters on Naboo has deemed it an act of piracy, nothing more. I forwarded them some of our data and a warning, but thus far they've chosen to disregard it."

"Typical," Jyr muttered. "What about the Chiss?"

"Two incursions," Lord Nevar stated simply. "They destroyed one insectoid base, but were repulsed from the other. More than that I could not learn."

"The Hutts have been closed mouthed as usual," Lord Trevel added.

"It occurred to me," Lord Brahn interjected, "that these insectoids are proceeding along an invasion corridor that suggests unfamiliarity with our space lanes. They use extragalactic space to skirt around the edges then begin working their way in. This suggests an isolated point of origin…or an extragalactic one."

"The satellite galaxies, perhaps?" Lord Trevel offered.

Jyr straightened. "I'll make inquires as to the state of the Rishi Maze, but as you know we have no assets or contacts with the Dummur Expanse. If we fail to locate the origin of these insectoids we may need to mount a discrete mapping expedition…and yes, I know how much of a headache that would be. So let's push that option to the edge of the table for now."

"Lord Brahn may be right," Lord Anet said, his mind elsewhere. "Their location of invasion points does suggest a lack of knowledge regarding hyperspace routes, which probably means they are unable to access or are unaware of the holonet."

"If that's so," Lord Revoris interjected, "we have a limited opportunity to hit and run without them being able to follow us effectively. Without proper maps we have an anonymity that could be very useful, but the farther they press inward…if that's really their intent…the more of our systems will become exposed."

Jyr nodded as he raised a hand to stop conversation. "To that end, reinforce all member systems within proximity to the known invasion points. Odds our one of those systems will be the first to be hit…and I do not want to forfeit any systems unless we have no other choice," he said, his voice chilling slightly. "This is not the threat that we've been planning for…but it is a threat that we can't ignore. Stay on the defensive for now, unless you can catch a small number of their forces off guard."

Jyr crossed his arms over his chest, a signal to the others that the meeting was drawing to a close. "When I hit the Dekata system, keep your eyes open for repercussions. I expect to draw a reaction…but I don't know what kind it will be. Lord Corodel, keep a mobile assault fleet on standby. In a worst case scenario I may need you to intervene."

"I will," Lord Corodel said, bowing slightly to the Supreme Warlord. "Fight well," he said before his holographic image vanished.

The others soon followed, and Jyr was left in the dark chamber alone. He walked over to a nearby comm pedestal and began to reconfigure the system to record a holo message. The recipient was too distant to use realtime communication, and as such all of Jyr's limited contact with the Rishi Maze had been through delayed, one directional messages.

He stepped back onto his original holopad and began recording.

"Admiral, I require the assistance of Imperial Intelligence regarding…"


	19. Chapter 19

After his meeting with the other Warlords, Jyr picked up Luke outside the comm chamber and took him further into the complex. They arrived inside a broad amphitheatre which currently held only a few dozen individuals spaced around the central stage in a variety of sitting positions. When the two Jedi entered all of the men simultaneously stood at attention.

"Luke, allow me to introduce Major Gram," Aer-ki said, indicating a blonde man who stood a full head taller than Luke, "and the Avenger special strike units…whom I've been training to incorporate and augment a Jedi when one is inserted into their ranks."

"Major," Luke said, nodding upward.

"Jedi Skywalker," Gram said, almost bowing, "I've heard stories of your combat prowess since I was a child. I promise we'll do everything we can to keep up with you on the battlefield." The others around him nodded in agreement.

Luke threw a quick glance at Jyr, but he kept quiet. "Tell me, Gram, what have you and the Avengers been training for…specifically?"

The lean, yet thickly muscled man smiled. "We're tasked with countering anything on the battlefield that is giving our line troops problems. We usually operate in five man teams with the understanding that a Jedi will occupy a sixth slot whenever possible. We can operate independently if needed," Gram said, glancing at Jyr, "but we're found that we're far more effective as an integrated unit."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Can I take that to mean you've had some combat experience?"

Gram nodded. "Pirates and low-lifes mostly, but we've gone on enough missions with Lord Jyr to understand the value of a Jedi's skills."

Luke crossed his arms over his chest. "How is the pairing valuable for the Jedi?"

Gram nodded, apparently expecting the question. "We carry a wide array of gear that would normally hinder a Jedi's mobility and agility…we offer long range offense where a lightsaber would be ineffective…we can be in more than one place at a time, with more than one set of eyes keeping watch…and we can keep a numerically superior enemy distracted long enough for the Jedi to take them out one or two at a time."

"Interesting," Luke mumbled.

"Thank you, Major," Jyr interrupted. "You may return to your training."

"Yes, sir," Gram said, flashing a hand signal to the rest of his men. They quickly filed out of the amphitheatre, leaving the two Jedi standing alone.

"You've fought with them?" Luke asked.

"Yes…when properly coordinated they come in quite handy."

Luke shook his head. "There's no way they can keep up with our speed."

"They're not supposed to," Jyr said, sitting down on the edge of the stage and letting his legs hang over. "But there are many missions where ground speed is irrelevant. I created the Avengers to be able to fight with Jedi, and vice versa, to each other's advantage. What I currently lack are Jedi."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "You want me to join one of these units?"

"Not exactly," Aer-ki said as Luke sat down next to him. "I want you to train other Jedi and have _them_ join the Avenger units."

Luke looked at him quizzically.

"We don't have the luxury of training to be peacekeepers," Jyr said, as serious as Luke had ever heard him. "Sooner or later we're going to be fighting for our very survival…we have to be able to fight back as effectively as possible. These Avenger units give us another way in which to fight, and we're going to need every advantage we can get."

"How long would a Jedi have to be with one of these units?" Luke asked.

"Long enough to learn how to fight with them…after that they can come and go as needed. I've trained the Avengers to fight with _a_ Jedi, not a specific individual. Our mobility won't be compromised."

"What about the insectoids?" Luke asked. "Don't you want my help fighting them?"

Jyr laughed. "Of course. But for the moment I think your time would be better spent picking a few Jedi and taking them to my facility to train."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Jyr nodded. "I've already informed the Monks. You can come and go as you please. The central computer has a base training regimen for what I expect from a Jedi before adding them to an Avenger unit. Help them pass the tests, but moreover make sure they're grounded. They need to be reliable more than they need to be powerful. Don't expect them to be able to do everything that we can do, especially regarding emotions. Just make sure you don't let any through unless they have their head on straight."

"Easier said than done, my friend."

"I know, but it needs to be done. My mission isn't just to save the galaxy, it's also to save the Jedi order. While I would prefer to have you at my side in battle, it's more important for you to prepare the others for what's coming. I can't be on the front lines and in the temple at the same time…but now that there are two of us, we can be in both places."

"Two of us?" Luke asked.

"Two of us that have our heads screwed on straight," Jyr clarified. "Once there are more we can leave the basic instruction to them and you can join me where the danger is the deepest and the Jedi are needed the most, but now is not that time. These insectoids are not the real threat that's coming, and they seem to be disinterested with the major systems at present…all of which means the Jedi order still has some time to prepare. We need to make use of our time while we still have it."

"I understand. How many Jedi were you thinking about?"

"As many as you can personally instruct at once. No more than a dozen, I'd guess, but the exact number is up to you. We have quarters for hundreds if necessary. I recommend you bring Kas, but as to the others choose at your own discretion." Jyr put a hand on Luke's shoulder. "Remember, each Jedi must walk their own path. If you can get them to unlearn what they have learned, and give them a nudge in the right direction, I think they will be able to handle the rest of their training on their own."

"I'll remember that," Luke promised. "Are you still going back to Dekata?"

Aer-ki nodded. "I'm leaving within the hour."


	20. Chapter 20

"Lord Jyr, the scout reports another ship in the system…destroyer class," Captain Gireti relayed from his position overlooking the comm officer's shoulder. New data scrolled across the consol with the slight glow from the letters reflecting off the man's chiseled features and the subtle round cheeks of the young lieutenant seated below him. She punched an additional few keys and the Captain nodded. "Group two reports on station."

"Nav, you have your coordinates," Aer-ki said from his standing position in the middle of the circular bridge. "At your discretion, Captain."

Gireti nodded with respect, then turned to the helm station. "Jump."

* * *

The small Shadow Alliance fleet skirted through hyperspace for .31 seconds before emerging in the wake of the Insectoid ships' orbital path. They had caught them in the transit phase of their irregular orbit as they moved between planet and moon and temporarily out of the gravity well of each.

The cruiser _Iron Will_ came to point in the formation and shielded the smaller destroyers and frigates behind her augmented shields as her gunners opened up on the Insectoid cruiser with 42 of their 48 tri-point turbolaser batteries. A rain of thin blue lances reached out and touched the Insectoids' hull a moment before they raised their shields.

Small gouges appeared in their hull, but no serious damage. Their protective energy barrier was now absorbing the fire from the human ship as the Insectoid destroyer and frigates swung around on the perimeter and moved to attack the _Iron Will_ from its flanks.

As they did the four Alliance destroyers moved out to intercept them, two to port, two to starboard while the 8 Alliance frigates remained motionless and silent, tucked in behind the bulk of the diamond-shaped cruiser.

Aer-ki left the direction of the battle to the _Iron Will_'s Captain and command staff, which consisted of a half dozen additional officers whose sole purpose was to coordinate fleet movements and strategy while the ship's XO handled the _Iron Will_'s part of the battle and Gireti trouble-shooted on both ends.

The Jedi's eyes darted from one display screen to another, then back to the master hologram and the various 'viewport' displays, whose images were being transmitted to the interior bridge via relay. He watched with cautious optimism as his force's offensive capability drilled into the Insectoids' shields and the ship's computers detailed the effectiveness of both with a continuous scroll of numbers being translated into statistics on five separate displays, including color coded status markers on the holographic ships floating a meter in front of him.

First engagements were always tricky…you never knew what your enemy was capable of. In Jyr's case he was double-blind, not knowing what his own forces were truly capable of. This was the first real combat that these new ships had been subjected to…and so far they seemed to be living up to his expectations.

The Insectoid cruiser's shields were down to 83 before it was able to fire its first return salvo, which consisted of a smattering of green turbolaser bolts and 6 pulse turbolasers which packed a surprising punch. The green lances didn't abate as soon as the others, lasting a good 2 seconds before shutting down for a quick recharge. Aer-ki had seen these types of turbolasers before, even using some on his own gunships, and he knew full well how dangerous they were…and how much power they consumed.

"Power output is considerably higher than expected," Gireti whispered from beside him.

Jyr didn't take his eyes off the displays. "Yes, I know. But I think our shield augments can handle whatever they can dish out."

The Captain nodded as one of the displays caught his attention. Two of the Alliance destroyers had opened up on the Insectoid destroyer with their four, apparently rapid fire, turbolaser batteries. This he knew was an illusion, but that fact didn't discourage the swell of pride he felt as the turbolaser bolts overwhelmed the enemy destroyer's forward shield in a wash of blue energy. The 6-point turbolaser battery fired at the same rate as all the other batteries within the fleet, but the additional three turbolasers gave the individual battery a higher coverage rate on their targets that could appear quite intimidating until you understood the actual mechanics of what was happening.

"Fighters launching from the cruiser," Gireti announced before he strode off elsewhere. Jyr belated noticed the pinprick powerup signatures of the _Iron Will_'s 110 small laser turrets on the tactical display while his attention was fixed to one particular readout. It monitored EM waves and recorded all known methods of enemy communication between ships. Aer-ki scanned the sparse readouts with a seemingly unwarranted intenseness as the deck vibrated from a string of small explosions.

Gireti watched with annoyance as the two Insectoid frigates disregarded the Alliance destroyers chipping away at their shields and began launching a steady stream of small missiles into the _Iron Will_'s port shields. He glanced at his ship's shield status for the 34th time in the past four minutes and saw it slowly decreasing through the 90s. No significant threat there, especially considering that their opposite number was showing shields in the lower 70s with an erratic drop rate.

He saw two thick green bursts leap between bows from what the combat computer had tagged as level 7 pulse turbolasers intermixed with the Insectoids' level 5 turrets. The two larger weapons caused ripples to occur in the forward shields, but the beams still couldn't make it all the way through. Gireti warned himself to be careful if ever engaging a larger Insectoid vessel. A little more power to those batteries and they _might_ be able to punch through an unaugmented cruiser shield.

His eyes flicked back to the enemy shield status display and caught a momentary increase in the drop rate. "Lord Jyr, their main weapons appear to draw power away from their shields when fired."

"Thank you, Captain," Aer-ki said, finally looking up from the comm display. "We have enough data. Release the frigates."

Gireti cracked a slight grin. "Aye, sir."

The eight Alliance frigates had held their two rows of four throughout the engagement, seemingly oblivious to the fighting taking place on the other side of the _Iron Will_. They hadn't fired a single shot, nor had been fired upon. They watched with patient eagerness as one of the Insectoid frigates took hull damage from one of the Alliance destroyers and began to vent atmosphere through its thick green-white battle plates.

When the order came, all eight ships responded instantaneously. They already knew their targets and the paths they were to take to get to them. Their engines flared angrily and pushed the pillar-headed warships out and around the _Iron Will, _where they quickly achieved target locks.

A few of the remaining Insectoid fighters redirected towards one of the frigates, but it ignored the tiny craft, not even bothering to open up with its laser turrets. Instead it opened its lateral bays and exposed its modular launch tubes. With enough clear space to starboard and port, the frigate Captain gave the order to fire.

A wave of ten large torpedoes emerged from the starboard launch tubes and made a lazy, wide-sweeping turn forward as an addition ten port-launched torpedoes mirrored their movements exactly. Together, with the 140 torpedoes launched by the other frigates, they tracked their way toward the four Insectoid ships, increasing in velocity as they approached.

No anti-missile fire came from the bulbous ships, but the Insectoid fighters tore after the torpedoes with a vengeance. They managed to destroy three of the warheads enroute, but the remaining 157 were more than enough to overwhelm the Insectoids' defenses.

Aer-ki watched the shield bars for the enemy ships drop to nothing within seconds of impact. The enemy return-fire ceased moments later as the four ships were ripped apart from the multiple detonations. Debris flew everywhere, and the _Iron Will_'s gunners began shooting down errant pieces drifting ominously towards their ship. The frigates, now depleted of half their payload, accelerated towards the remaining fighters and began batting them down as they circled round the debris, seemingly unaware of what to do next.

Had they been human pilots Aer-ki would have offered them the chance to surrender, but this species had made no attempt at communication since their arrival in this part of the galaxy…and Aer-ki literally had no means of communicating with them. That said, he sent out a brief text message anyway, to both the half dozen remaining fighters that had finally decided to turn tail and run…and to the ground base that he was about to destroy.

"Move the frigates into blockade position over the target," Jyr ordered, once again standing in the center of the bridge. He glanced down at the tactical hologram of the Insectoid base as it replaced the diagram of his ships and the debris field. "Launch fighters and gunships."


	21. Chapter 21

Lieutenant 1st-grade Kelson gingerly nudged his _Raptor_-class fighter out of the _Ardor 18_'s jam-packed hangar bay and tilted the craft's pointy nose down towards Dekata 2. He thrusted forward, clearing the way for the rest of the matte-black fighters to exit the destroyer's modular port hangar bay.

All four destroyers had been outfitted as carriers for this mission and, through the use of vertical racks and careful organization, had crammed forty fighters into each ship, giving the task force a sizeable fighter presence while still allowing the _Iron Will_ to be equipped with power and shield enhancements instead of hangar mods.

Kelson drifted toward the atmosphere while letting the rest of the assault force close up and into attack formation. Off to his left he noted two fighters passing him by and moving ahead of the formation. Those would be the drone fighters, being remotely flown by pilots in pods onboard the carriers. They would do a flyby of the Insectoid base and draw out any hidden batteries or other surprises before the manned fighter force moved in to engage.

"Lead, this is Six. I show twenty-some fighters launching from the base."

Kelson glanced at his displays, quickly confirmed Ensign Pasdt's report, then opened his intra-squadron comm. "Bombers head to ground, fighters advance and intercept hostiles."

Eight black diamonds streaked forward in a loose vertical "X" formation with Kelson's raptor in the leading central point. He toggled the sensor data on the Insectoid fighters to one of his secondary screens and frowned. "Hold back missiles and torpedoes," he said to those of his squadron equipped with them. "They aren't showing any shields…but their engine signatures are impressive. Expect them to be agile…try and hit them on approach."

Kelson hesitated during an eerily silent moment as the two forces rapidly closed distance and he began to feel the first effects of his transition into the upper atmosphere. He glanced at his weapons display one last time…all six laser cannons in his two lateral mods were in the green, as was his shield generator located in the third mod that made up the forward tip of his ship.

Kelson's thumb depressed and a hailfire of tiny blue splinters lept out from the lateral "tips" of the fighter's diamond design and disappeared into the distance. He held in the trigger, gently rocking the nose of the fighter back and forth as his squadron did likewise. Sporadic spurts of green energy began streaking back at them as a few tiny explosions appeared ahead.

"Break!" he ordered, tugging his stick down a moment after the other raptors were clear. The Insectoid fighters burst up from below and passed between the expanding raptor formation, then broke up into threes and engaged the Humans at close range.

Throttling back, Kelson's Raptor did a quick fore to aft flip, then reengaged thrust in the opposite direction as the Lieutenant picked out one of the wispy green fighters and followed it. Kelson flicked fire control back to full power bursts and fired off two potent shots that missed wide as the Insectoid flipped and rolled out laterally, brining Kelson around on its tail directly into the path of another green-white fighter.

The Shadow Alliance pilot took a shot to his shields before he broke hard starboard and out of their immediate field of fire. One his sensors the fighter he was chasing rejoined with its threesome and pursued him with an alarming closing rate.

"Two…I need you. Head to head."

"I see you," Lieutenant Anderson said, redirecting her fighter to match Kelson's approach. "Permission to use missiles?"

"Granted," Kelson grunted as he spun his ship around its axis as another underpowered blast impacted his aft shields.

"Get readyyyy…" she said, holding the last syllable, "…now!"

Kelson threw his fighter through the hardest turn he could manage, clearing Anderson's line of fire. A split second after he did, two missiles slid by his wake and connected with one of the fighters' starboard sides as it turned to follow Kelson, impacting its larger cross section in a muted explosion that was more flying parts than flames.

Before he could thank his fellow pilot a number of fast moving blurs raced past his cockpit viewscreen. The images, relayed from external cameras outside the armored hull, moved too fast for him to identify…but he guessed from the explosions that followed that it must have been the fighters from _Ardor 21_ finally catching up to the furball.

"All clear, Lead," Anderson reported.

Kelson quickly checked his sensors. "Follow the bombers down and provide cover."

* * *

Major Trippet sat in one of the _Ardor 18_'s control pods, yet, save for the lack of G-forces, he would have swore he was actually in the drone fighter that he was remotely controlling down on the plant's surface.

A bead of sweat ran down his forehead but he didn't dare swipe it away, it was taking all his concentration just to keep his drone fighter in the air. He'd lost his starboard weapons mod when a ground-based turret tower had drilled through his ship's shields with a single, well placed shot.

It was one of five turrets that he'd located around the base, and one of two that had been hidden within the surrounding forest and raised into firing position _after_ they had flown past. The low-powered turbolaser had done damage to his starboard engine mount as well as messing with his repulsorlift coils. This left him hobbling along over the treetops while he transmitted targeting data back to the approaching bombers.

The concealed turret towers had retracted back into the forest, but it did them little good…their positions had already been marked. A flurry of long-range torpedoes blasted through the vegetation and cut through the spire-like turrets at ground level, toppling the constructs, which flattened the surrounding trees as they fell. For good measure the bombers deposited a single energy bomblet into the depression in the vegetation as they passed over.

The volatile energy held within the tiny containment forcefield obliterated the fallen turrets upon contact, bending and breaking trees outward with the ensuing concussion wave. When the dust would settle half an hour later, the aerial view would show nothing but rubble and cracked wood.

With the five turrets destroyed the bombers closed and deposited their bomblets on the base itself. Trippet, having gained a measure of control over his damaged craft, circled back to the Insectoid base and contributed what he could to the damage via his intact port weapons mod.

He strafed the few Insectoids that were returning fire with hand weapons and blew apart a mound of supplies with a well placed missile…all the while keeping his distance from the base as the extended-length raptors bombed the sith-spit out of the Insectoid structures.

Within minutes the recall order came and Trippet slowly made for space as he collected scans of the decimated base that would be added to the intel report along with every other image from the fighters and ships in orbit. He inspected the destruction on his secondary monitor as he finessed the lift coils into compensating for the off-center thrust of his single good engine.

Aside from the burning rubble and glowing craters he spotted a few moving dots around the perimeter of the base. He guessed they were surviving Insectoids that would have to be hunted down by their ground troops…but he doubted that there were too many left. The energy bombs that the raptors used were designed to do damage to surface _and subsurface_ targets alike. The Alliance army shouldn't have too much trouble cleaning up…odd though that they had recalled the fighters. Usually ground ops required at least minimal aerial support.

* * *

"Fighters have cleared the atmosphere and are returning to the destroyers," Captain Gireti relayed to Jyr from the comms station. "We have one damaged fighter requesting to land in the _Iron Will_'s bay for repairs. Apparently the pilot doesn't think they'll have room onboard the destroyer."

"Your call, Captain," Aer-ki said, shrugging his shoulders. With the shield augment mods installed, the only hangar bay on the _Iron Will_ was a small portside bay.

Gireti nodded. "I think we can make room," he said, motioning to one of his junior officers. The trim woman nodded and briskly jogged off the bridge.

"Sensors," Jyr said, addressing the Major currently at that station, "are we still clear?"

"Yes, sir. Both realspace and hyperspace sensors are clear."

"Bring in the transport," Jyr ordered.

Two minutes later a medium-sized freighter dropped out of hyperspace along with two frigates serving escort. The freighter moved into an extremely high orbit, far away from any conceivable in-system traffic and opened its cargo bay.

A stealth-plated reconnaissance satellite floated out with a gentle nudge from the freighter's tractor beam. Ten minutes later the _Iron Will_ received the first telemetry update from the in-system scout…which included a decent, long range photo of the remains of the Insectoid base as it slowly rotated across the horizon and temporarily out of view. Should the base ever be rebuilt, they would be able to remotely monitor the construction.

"Time to leave, Captain," Jyr said, finally taking the Admiral's seat. "We can't afford to be here when their reinforcements arrive."

"Especially if they send that Hive ship," Gireti commented.

Aer-ki nodded. "Right now that ship is beyond our touch."

"Right now?" Gireti asked.

The Jedi Guardian smiled. "We're working on it."


	22. Chapter 22

Luke sat, back bent, with his face buried in the terminal's display screen. Even after three years of study Luke had yet to complete his search through the Jedi archives. There was more detailed data than he had ever expected to find during his long, futile search to reassemble the tidbits that had survived the Empire's Jedi purge. Now, having access to the actual archives, he would often just pick a section at random and dive into the accumulated knowledge of the Jedi…but not today.

This morning the Jedi Knight was interested in one particular section regarding telepathy or, to be more precise, a specific type of telepathy that he had unwittingly stumbled upon during the past few weeks spent instructing the twenty four Jedi that he'd brought with him to Aer-ki's hidden training center.

Luke had been through this text before, but now he was starting to make connections that had previously eluded him. More and more he was realizing that the information in the archives was tiered…not in a restricted way, but one in which base knowledge was required for full understanding. There were many tenets that Luke had found to be superfluous during his first year of training with Jyr…but now he was beginning to see the underlying wisdom in those simple, innocuous idioms.

Luke surmised they were progress markers, a way of letting less experienced Jedi know that they were on the right path while nudging them in the next direction. More and more Luke had begun to realize that the instruction of an apprentice, or in this case less experienced Knights and 'Masters,' had less to do with imparting knowledge and enforcing discipline, and more to do with imparting the proper modus operandi for self-training.

Which brought Luke to his current excursion into the archives. During his initial lessons in, what he termed 'aggressive defense' he had briefly established a mental link with Kas when he was closely monitoring his emotions while deflecting low-powered blaster bolts with him. It had happened when Kas had momentarily mirrored Luke's emotional state. It had felt similar to the battlemeld, but instead of sharing situational awareness he felt Kas's emotions align with his in what the Chiss had later deemed a moment of much needed insight.

The importance of this breakthrough had not been lost on Luke. Aside from Kas, the other Jedi were making no progress whatsoever in their training. They were being extremely obtuse, despite their best efforts to the contrary. If Luke could give them a chance to attenuate their emotions to his…

But he wasn't about to try to recreate the effect without further study. Mental connections were tricky, in so that they could easily become mental manipulations that would suppress one mind in favor of the other…which would in turn be completely useless in training. A Jedi had to learn for himself the way of the force…he had to feel it, experience it, and learn to use it. That wisdom could not be imparted to him, it had to be discovered on an individual basis. The purpose of the teacher was to nudge the Jedi into areas where that discovery could occur.

If Luke could turn this chance occurrence into a new ability, he could conceivably do more than nudge them in the right direction…he could use his current level as a compass of sorts which Kas and the others could measure themselves against and get an idea of what he was futilely trying to impart to them in words.

Luke held his eagerness in check. There was still a good chance that this wouldn't work, but if it was possible then there would probably be something similar mentioned in the…

Luke sat up straight, eyes wide. There it was…exactly what he was looking for. _Emotional Synergy_.

He'd read through this very text before, completely misunderstanding it. Now that he'd had a real-life insight into the subject matter, the words were suddenly making sense.

Luke eased back from the terminal and blew out a deep breath. Now he had a chance.

* * *

"As you can see, the base was decimated," Jyr reported to the holographic Warlords displayed in a wide circle reaching out to his right and left. "However, four days later this arrived insystem."

The central hologram zoomed out to the orbital view of the recon satellite as a crescendo of hyperspace reversions flashed on the extreme left of the display. When the white flashes had subsided an Insectoid fleet, 142 ships strong, broke apart and fanned out in an aggressive defensive posture as two dozen corvettes streaked forward towards the ruins of their base.

"Fifteen cruisers, four battleships, and one dreadnaught-sized carrier," Jyr narrated as the holo continued, "with approximately 5,000 fighters onboard."

Lord Nevar frowned. "How do you know that?"

Aer-ki turned to his right. "When they entered the system they were prepped for battle. The satellite's passive sensors detected over 5,000 faint, individual power signatures within that ship," he said, pointing to the massive, elongated lump of Insectoid technology.

Lord Revoris squinted at the holo. "I don't think this is the same fleet my scouts picked up earlier. There are too many smaller ships."

"Meaning we could be seriously underestimating their numbers," Lord Sevis added.

"That could be the most ironic quote of the year," Lord Arcane said with no trace of humor in his tone. "I've been studying what limited data we have in detail, and I believe we are not dealing with the same Insectoids across the galaxy, but an alliance of several different factions."

That comment lifted eyebrows around the room. "Continue," Aer-ki said into the silence.

"Hull designs all show various shades of green, but with a variety of secondary colors. The ships at Dekata were green with white streaks…the ships operating within Republic boundaries are green with blue streaks."

"And the ones operating in Chiss space," Lord Nevar interjected, "are bright green with yellow streaks. What makes you think they're more than just fleet designations?"

Lord Arcane glared at Nevar for a moment then toggled his offscreen controls. The central hologram morphed into three Insectoid cruiser diagrams floating abeam of each other. "The general design is the same, but several small modifications have been made," he said, highlighting several surface components on the lumpy hulls, "but all ships with corresponding color schemes are completely identical to the others. This suggests that we are dealing with separate entities…or in the case of insects let's call them Broods. And these Broods seem to be assigned to specific regions within the galaxy."

"Good work," Lord Sevis said. "I'd completely missed that."

Aer-ki nodded to Arcane. "How many are we dealing with?"

"At least five," he said, shrugging, "but I'd guess considerably more, given their deployment pattern."

Lord Etis cleared his throat. "Has anyone made any progress determining the Insectoids' point of origin yet?"

Jyr waited for any new information to be offered, but when none came he finally spoke. "My contact reports that they do not originate within the Rishi Maze, however they are present there."

"There too," Sevis said, exasperated. "How many of them are there?"

"We're not going to be able to handle this on our own," Lord Darr admitted reluctantly.

"I agree," Jyr said. "Our objective is to do damage where we can, while preserving our fleet."

"And if they hit an Alliance world?" Lord Anet asked.

"We play it smart," the Jedi-Warlord insisted. "We defend our worlds up until the point of suffering heavy losses. We have evacuation plans in place should we need them. I don't want to lose an Alliance system, but given the numbers we're facing we may not have a choice whether we lose, just in how we lose."

"Your words a very reassuring," Lord Corodel said sarcastically, "but I concur. I would, however, suggest that you redirect part of your fleet near the Colorban system. I anticipate the Insectoids will invade there shortly, and I don't know how large an assault force they'll throw at it."

"Why Colorban?" Jyr asked.

Corodel adjusted the hologram to a map of his territory, which included most of the Rim League. He highlighted systems known to have an Insectoid presence. "They appear to like temperate worlds with a mass of vegetation, I've yet to see them on one that doesn't. Colorban is rich with resources, just inside the Insectoids' deepest incursion corridor, and…recently visited by an Insectoid scout craft."

Jyr frowned. "How long ago?"

"Two days."

Aer-ki ground his teeth. "Have any of our other systems been probed?"

Heads shook a unanimous 'no,' and were confirmed by Corodel. "It's the only Alliance system close to the Insectoids."

"Colorban is Rim League, correct?" Jyr asked.

Corodel nodded. "They have four Mon Cal cruisers and six defense platforms stationed in orbit, so I expect the Insectoids to bring in a significant assault force."

Jyr stared off into nothingness for a moment, then met the Warlord's gaze. "You'll have twenty cruisers within a week."


	23. Chapter 23

Luke held his violet blade with the tip pointed toward the ground and his left hand on the upraised, ball-like pommel. He wicked the inverted blade left and right experimentally before pinning Kas's lateral strike half a meter to his right.

The Chiss thrust the opposite end of his double-bladed training saber around in an attack on Luke's upper left, but a quick cross-over of Luke's wrists brought his blade up into a high guard position that stopped the stunsaber cold. Kas retreated half a step and spun his double blade around in a defensive twirl that knocked Luke's quick retaliatory upthrust aside.

Where there had once been a lull in their sparing exercises, a moment for reflection, or a quick comment on technique, that pause was now filled with a flurry of nonstop attacks and deflections. The passive natural of their old training regimen had been put aside in favor of a more aggressive combat…one fueled by new revelations about the force and by the simple fact that a stunsaber wouldn't lop off a limb if hit.

In the past such duels had meant to test each other's skill without making contact. This type of sparring had added to the restrictive nature of Jedi philosophy and had left many, including Kas, yearning for something more. Now that they had the use of stunsabers, they actually _wanted_ to hit each other, and were trying their best to do just that.

It was a much more honest form of sparring, Luke had realized over the past few weeks, and one that rewarded inadequacy with a mild stun that numbed and further slowed one's reflexes until it wore off. A few slight grazes could add up to a significant impairment…which made for a much better 'scoring system' than Luke had ever encountered. It also gave one an opportunity to learn to resist the stun effect through focus and sheer will, as well as possibility of developing some type of low level physical resistance against the disabling effect.

But the best part was that one could fight unrestrained and really extend themselves in a way that was impossible with real lightsabers. This was probably the 20th time that Luke and Kas had sparred since arriving at Jyr's training center…and would be the last for some time. Knowing this, both Jedi were putting their full effort into the contest.

After three years spent training with Jyr, Luke owned Kas in single-bladed combat despite the fact that Luke and Aer-ki had rarely sparred against each other. Most of their sparring drills had seen them working together against droids or other devices. Never the less, Luke's proficiency with the blade had increased dramatically, far outstripping the former blade-master of the order.

Kas's use of a double blade hadn't yielded him victory against Luke's single blade until he had _unlearned_ all that he had previously learned regarding aggression and the way of the Jedi. Once he had come to understand that aggression wasn't inherently part of the darkside and could actually be an attribute of the light, his longstanding personal inhibitors vanished inside a day. Within two weeks he had passed _all_ the tests that Jyr had outlined for the Avenger program, and had begun to give Luke a challenge against his double blade.

Kas had bested him twice…barely. For all intents and purposes they were equally matched, single blade to double blade, and Luke was loving every minute of it.

The ancient Jedi maintained his inverted form and smiled as Kas raced to adapt to the extremely low thrusts aimed at his legs. The Chiss had to keep his blade pointed down almost constantly, else risk Luke swiping his violet blade across his ankles or up into his thigh.

Kas backstepped to give himself some breathing room, lifted his double blade high over his head, then spun it about while leaning forward. He knew he was exposing his legs, but if Luke went for the strike then Kas would get two or three numbing hits to his one.

Luke realized this as well and didn't strike the black-clad legs of his friend. Instead he lifted the blade straight up, bringing his left hand below his right in an upright grip that had Luke staring at the back of his hands. An awkward position, but one that put the blade up and into the path of the violet twirl.

The blades locked, briefly, then Kas kicked up into Luke's hands before dropping into a low level spin aimed at his legs.

Instead of fighting the kick, Luke went with it and backflipped clear of Kas. He landed, reset in the inverted saber position, then lunged back into striking range. The two went at it for another ten minutes before a series of small grazes saw both of them staggering to stay on their feet.

Luke gathered his focus one last time and force-pulled Kas toward him…a trick he'd learned from Jyr…and skewered the off balance Jedi with the tip of his blade.

Kas dropped to the floor, unconscious. Luke stammered over to the wall and slid down into a knee-to-chest seated position. He tilted his head back and tried to bleed away the numbness in his right shin and left forearm while he waited for Kas to recover.

"An interesting technique," Kas commented a few hours later on the inverted sparing style. "Too bad I won't have time to break it down," he said, cracking a smile.

"I thought I'd give you a look at something new before you left," Luke said, then added, "…and I wanted to go out on top."

Kas's red eyes narrowed into glowing slits. "For now," he said as Luke brought him into a room previously off limits to all but the Camasi. The blue-skinned Jedi raised an eyebrow when he saw the room's contents. "He's been busy."

Luke nodded in agreement as they walked through row after row of display cases. When he found the one he wanted, he pulled open the clear lid and reached for a specific smooth, chrome-colored cylinder. He held it up before him and activated the blue double blade.

"Normal lightsaber," Luke said before prying open a small panel and revealing a hidden switch. With a twist of the round knob the blue blade flashed into a faint aqua hue. "This is the stunsaber setting, and can be activated using the force, so you don't have to stop and open the panel each time you want to switch blades."

Luke deactivated the saber and handed it to his friend, who studied it closely before glancing over the hundreds of similar, but not identical lightsabers ceremoniously mounted throughout the room. "It looks like he's preparing for a Jedi war," Kas said ominously.

Luke raised an eyebrow, considering how much he should tell his friend. He looked out over the neat rows of lightsabers nestled in formfitting recesses in what Luke had come to think of as a Jedi armory.

"He is," Luke said simply.


	24. Chapter 24 Battle for Colorban

"Captain, we have contacts entering the system," Major Irison said over her shoulder from the sensor station.

Captain Ricton glanced up from the datapad in his hand. The _Rising Sun_ and the other 21 Shadow Alliance cruisers in Lord Jyr's taskforce had been waiting outside the Colorban system for two weeks in anticipation of an Insectoid invasion of the Rim League world. They had seen many false alarms from the dense civilian traffic that permeated the system, so it was with a half-hearted effort that Ricton rose from his command chair and walked over to the tactical hologram. "What do we have?"

The Major, who was tapped into Colorban's own sensor grid, tightened the sensor focus and zoomed in on a group of ships emerging from hyperspace on the edge of the planet's gravity well. Two ship silhouettes were highlighted for analysis, with the total ship count at 24.

"That's not good," Commander Nete said as he walked up beside Ricton.

"No, it's not," he agreed, glancing at his XO. "I don't think anyone has faced an Insectoid battleship yet?"

Nete shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of…let alone two."

The 22 cruisers ringing the two battleships began to slowly move towards Colorban and one of the six defense stations ringing its equator. The four Mon Calamari 'cruisers' orbiting near the station were actually battleship class, some 3,000 meters long and sporting 200 turbolaser cannons spaced equidistantly around their deep blue, egg-shaped hulls. All Mon Cal capital ships took on the moniker of 'star cruiser,' which was often erroneously shortened to 'cruiser' and mistaken for the ship's class.

Ricton doubted the Insectoids had made that mistake, yet their assault fleet seemed a bit underpowered. They might be able to defeat the Rim League forces if the Alliance fleet hadn't been waiting for them, but he doubted that their 1700-meter long green/black battleships could stand toe to toe with the larger Mon Cal equivalent.

"More contacts," Irison said as she adjusted the tactical hologram to show a full orbital diagram with a second Insectoid fleet tagged near the first, yet farther out and about 20 degrees spinward.

The _Rising Sun_'s Captain and XO both frowned. The new fleet showed 17 more cruisers, 26 destroyers, and 36 corvettes. It was far more than the Rim League forces could deal with, but not more than their taskforce could handle…let alone the other 47 Alliance cruisers on the opposite side of the system under the personal command of Lord Corodel.

"Captain," Irison said worriedly as another Insectoid fleet dropped out of hyperspace on the other side of the planet. This one contained 22 corvettes, 4 cruisers, and one very large dreadnaught.

"I see them, Major. It looks like we've got our work cut out for us," Ricton said as yet another fleet emerged 20 degrees anti-spinward of the dreadnaught's group, but it wasn't to be the last. Three more fleets would arrive within minutes, placing five attack groups in the hemisphere with the Mon Cal battleships and two low orbit defense stations, while the other two Insectoid assault fleets were holding position in the opposite orbital hemisphere overlooking two more battleship-sized defense stations. The last two defense stations, both equipped with hangars for over 500 starfighters each, sat on the terminator line on opposite sides of the planet as they hastily deployed A-wings, B-wings, and Torches.

Ricton studied the holo closely. Only three of the Insectoid attack groups were closing in on the planet. Two others, both with a dreadnaught _carrier_, as it turned out, were holding position and disgorging their 5,000 fighters towards two of the defense stations.

The other two groups were holding position on the edge of Colorban's gravity well, inactive. A closer inspection of the sensor data revealed that the 17 cruisers in the second fleet that arrived insystem were, in fact, transports, probably packed with ground troops ready for a planetary assault. The other stationary group contained a mass of destroyers, frigates, and corvettes with only two cruisers among them. All in all, the Insectoids had brought an invasion force containing 483 capital ships.

"We can't handle that," Nete whispered after a long moment of silence.

"Maybe not," Ricton admitted, "but we can still do some damage." He pointed to the two carrier groups. "I bet we take the dreadnaughts while their fighters are pounding the defense stations."

"Or the transports," Nete offered as they saw the Mon Cal warships cluster together around the nearest defense station along with two small frigates and 17 corvettes that made up Colorban's orbital security forces. The smaller ships were designed to fight off pirates and patrol the traffic lanes…and as such were no match for the Insectoids' numbers or technological strength, but never the less the Colorban ships didn't run, they held their ground alongside the Mon Cal as the two battleships and 22 cruisers in the first attack group burned towards them along with 5,000 fighters from the nearby dreadnaught.

"If we're going to do something, we need to do it now," Nete said as the battle for Colorban was about to get underway.

"Captain, orders from Admiral Harris," the comm officer reported. "We're moving in. Coordinates and attack data supplied."

"Helm, get us moving," Ricton bellowed.

"Prepare for micro-jump," Major Yar said as he input the new coordinates. Outside two other Alliance cruisers disappeared from view as Lord Jyr's taskforce jumped into Colorban's gravity well behind the two Insectoid fleets on the far side of the planet.

The _Rising Sun_ emerged from their quick hyperspace jump into the system with a bright green dot on the forward screens…the 3,000 meter-long dreadnaught carrier was large enough to be seen even from this distance.

"Deployment orders," Yar said as he transferred the information to the Captain's chair display. The Captain reviewed it, then forwarded the orders directly to the helm station. Ricton motioned for his XO to take his seat and handle ship's the coordination within the fleet while he oversaw the battle itself.

On the holo he saw that Lord Corodel's fleet had emerged on the other side of the planet and was moving in on the second dreadnaught carrier hoping, as they were, to catch them without their protective swarm of 'wisps,' as the Alliance pilots had begun to call the small, underpowered, and shieldless starfighters. But what they lacked in offense and defense they made up for in speed, maneuverability, and sheer numbers.

"Commander, where does the Admiral want our guns?"

"On the dreadnaught," Nete said without hesitation.

"Helm, get our nose pointed at that carrier. Guns, open up as soon as we are in range," he said, fully understanding the Admiral's orders. Twenty of Jyr's 22 cruisers were equipped with shield augments, and were capable of shrugging off the damage from the four cruisers and 22 corvettes escorting the carrier long enough to pound it to dust…hopefully before the fighters returned."

Suddenly the space around the _Rising Sun_ burst forth with a wash of blue as all 22 cruisers opened up on the dreadnaught from range as they slowly curved into it's wake as it ponderously turned away from the grey/gold cruisers and headed for the nearby fleet whose smaller and faster ships rushed to meet up with the dreadnaught. The carrier's fighters suddenly disengaged their attack on the beleaguered defense station and streaked toward the Human assault fleet at full speed. They were, however, going to be late.

The Alliance cruisers were faster than the dreadnaught and were closing with it as their tri-point turbolaser batteries lighted up its shields from bow to stern. One of the corvettes moved into the onslaught and was hulled within 20 seconds as it tried to cover for the carrier. Once the 220-meter long vessel was shieldless, the blue turbolaser blasts tore into and through the ship, leaving floating chunks of debris listing in front of the lead cruisers as they approached the retreating dreadnaught.

Instead of diverting around the debris, the two lead cruisers, _Evanescence_ and _Defiance_, blasted it into smaller pieces and plowed through, accepting minor shield loss in order to close on the dreadnaught as quickly as possible. They _had_ to kill the mammoth ship before the fighters arrived.

The other escorts for the carrier didn't interpose themselves into the firestorm as their cohort had. Instead, they surged forward beneath the line of fire and attacked the Alliance cruisers from below as they passed slowly overhead. The four Insectoid cruisers fell behind the Alliance fleet and suddenly found themselves unable to keep up with the faster Human ships. They gradually drifted out of weapons range while the double-hulled corvettes kept pace and chipped away at the diamond-shaped behemoths' shields as they closed on the carrier.

It returned fire on the cruisers, but with only a handful of batteries. Its primary weapons were its fighters and it was extremely vulnerable without them. Only its strong shields prevented the Humans from immediately tearing apart its thinly armored hull, but that would only last for so long. It couldn't stand up to the combined firepower of 22 Shadow Alliance cruisers…ships that had been built specifically for naval warfare and engineered so that 42 of their 48 turbolaser batteries could concentrate their combined fire on one specific point off their forward bow.

The sheer mass of incoming fire brought down the dreadnaught's shields before either their fighter force or the fleet of support ships could arrive. A string of explosions lit up the carrier for several minutes as the Human ships exploited the glaring weakness in the Insectoids' assault plans. They methodically targeted each section of the ship as it broke apart, making sure that nothing salvageable survived. With that done they turned their attention to the nagging corvettes and the four cruisers that had caught up and focused their firepower on one lone cruiser at the back of the formation, the _Preservation_, and had managed to cut its augmented shield strength by half.

That changed as the whale-like cruisers slowly rotated around and targeted the Insectoids en mass. Within ten minutes both the dreadnaught and its escorts were put down without a single Alliance ship taking hull damage.

Which had been by design. The Warlords and the senior officers within the Shadow Alliance fleet knew they had to preserve their ships in order to be able to fight a prolonged conflict. As much as it went against their instincts, all naval officers had been trained to fight until serious damage had begun, or was about to be inflicted on their ships. For this reason, both Lord Jyr and Lord Corodel had opted not to send anything smaller than a cruiser into the Colorban system. They had expected to encounter a large Insectoid fleet capable of quickly taking out the smaller Alliance capital ships if they drew enough unwelcome attention, so they had both agreed to send shield augmented cruisers to deal with the imminent invasion, hopefully without losing a single ship.

That said, they hadn't expected to encounter an invasion fleet of this magnitude. The Insectoids had surprised them once again, and would probably take the planet as a result…but not before the Humans made them pay dearly for it.

"Helm, new formation orders," Nete said from the Captain's chair. Ricton remained at the tactical display as the swarm of fighters neared weapons range.

If his mental calculations were correct, the Insectoid fighters would arrive well before the 206 smaller support ships could close to weapons range. In fact, they should have just enough time to engage the fighters…

The holo suddenly showed turbolaser batteries being powered down across the fleet and Ricton quickly ordered likewise. Soon the shield recharge rate of the _Rising Sun_ increased by 32 percent and the shield strength numbers began to creep upward a bit quicker, replenishing the small amount of energy lost during the attack on the dreadnaught.

Suddenly the _Fury_ and _Intercession_, the only two cruisers in the taskforce without shield augments, began launching a fountain of long range, anti-fighter missiles at the approaching swarm before the wisps could enter firing range. Ever since receiving intel on the Insectoids' dreadnaught/carrier class of warship, Lord Jyr had insisted on sending missile cruisers equipped to defend against the 5,000 fighters that the Insectoids were capable of deploying.

Across the fleet anti-fighter laser cannons began tracking forward and taking potshots at the approaching swarm while it was still out of weapons range. Each of the capital ships in the Alliance fleet was designed to be an anti-starfighter/anti-missile warship as well as a 'slugger' against other capital ships…and it had cost them in terms of surface landing capability, hangar space, troop transport, and orbital bombardment accuracy.

But even given that anti-fighter capability, Ricton was glad Jyr had insisted on the missile mods for the two ships. As he watched the white streaks of missile trails pass by the _Rising Sun_'s port side he ground his teeth in anticipation. Things were about to get ugly.


	25. Chapter 25

"Guns, mind your vectors," Ricton reminded. "The Admiral wants us in close formation and we can't expect our shields to soak up the friendly fire this time. We're going to need every ounce of shield strength we can get."

"Tractor control," Nete's voice said from the Captain's chair, "set for 110 meters, solid hold."

Ricton glanced at the main display as the _Indomitable_ drifted over the _Rising Sun_'s starboard bow. The diamond-shaped ship paralleled their orientation then froze in place as both ships' tractor beams locked their hulls equidistantly apart, with the _Indomitable_'s port tip extending almost to the _Rising Sun_'s forward ridgeline. This allowed room for the _Lynx_ to move into position ahead, above, and to port of the _Sun_, putting it 150 meters across from the _Indomitable_ in a mirror position.

Two more cruisers moved into position below Captain Ricton's ship without obscuring his primary firelane directly off the bow. Directly above them was empty space, and a potential attack vector for the approaching cloud of Insectoid fighters, but below and to either side sat their sister ships…two almost touching the lateral lines, with the third some 500 meters below. All 22 cruisers were moving into this eight, six, eight formation with the _Rising Sun_ occupying the upper, middle position within the six…sitting almost dead center within the formation.

The _Fury_ and _Intercession_, with their weaker shields, took up the upper, outside positions on the back row, putting them behind the stronger shields of the fleet while still allowing them plenty of room to continue launching their missile salvos.

Suddenly every available laser battery within the fleet opened up on the wisps as they broke into attack lines and opened fire on the Alliance cruisers. Ricton kept a constant eye on the _Rising Sun_'s shield strength indicator while watching the attack unfold on the tactical holo. The missiles were doing an enormous amount of damage to the closely grouped fighters, rendering dangerous debris clouds that contributed secondary collision damage to the surviving wisps, who quickly altered their 'cloud' formation into a dozen or so 'tendrils' that snaked into the cruiser formation, firing a torrent of green laser blasts, too numerous to count, into the enhanced shields of the Alliance cruisers.

Ricton watched with helpless frustration as the _Rising Sun_'s protective shield began to steadily weaken under the relentless assault. The attacking tendrils would snake through the gaps in the formation, then skirt around the edges until they found another hole to dive back through. All the while the Alliance gunners destroyed wisp after wisp whenever they had an unobscurred shot. There were so many friendly hulls in sight that many gunners logged no-fire zones into their firing controls and let the onboard computer abort their attacks whenever their sights crossed over a friendly.

This made for a lot of useless, frustrated trigger pulling, but it meant no hesitation on the part of the gunners…which was paying off when the wisps would cross into the open. They managed to down many as they crossed the gaps between ships, sometimes only visible for a fraction of a second.

Ricton knew his gunners were good. They'd trained relentlessly for just this type of situation and he was pleased to see their hard work paying off, but there were just too many fighters for them to deal with. Given time they could target and kill them all, but with the drain on the shields being what it was he knew the Insectoids were going to break through their shields first.

"_Defiance_'s shields are down," Irison announced between clenched teeth.

Ricton glanced at the ship's icon on the upper left of the front line. It was missing the blue aura that the other cruisers were showing…no, wait, _Resonator_'s shields had just gone down too. Both ships were now taking shots to their armor and the tiny auxiliary shields that covered each individual weapons battery.

The Captain's eyes glanced at the fighter count above the holo as the swarms seemed to suddenly lose their integrity. 603 fighters remained, and that number was decreasing rapidly. If they could just hold on a little longer…

A small vibration shook the deck under Ricton's feet. "What was that?"

"Impact," Irison said as more vibrations reverberated in sequence. The ship's shield strength diminished with each. "They're ramming us."

Ricton glanced back at the holo. It wasn't just them. The remaining fighters were ramming all the cruisers. One last act of defiance…or was it?

The Captain shook his head in disbelief. "Damn, they're sacrificing themselves to soften us up for their reserve fleet," he said aloud as the shields dropped under ten percent. "Time to intercept?" he asked as the last of the enemy fighter icons vanished from the display. Seventeen of the 22 cruisers had lost shields and suffered minor to moderate hull damage, but none of it had managed to penetrate their ten-meter thick armor plating.

"Eight minutes," Irison answered.

"Tractor control, release all locks," Nete ordered. "Helm, hard to port. New coordinates. We have to get moving before their reinforcements arrive."

"Retreat?" Ricton asked.

"No," Nete said, firmly shaking his head. "Delay. The Admiral wants to give us a chance to recharge shields. If they attack now, they'll have to attack with their smaller ships only…"

"…because their larger ships can't keep pace with us at full thrust," Ricton finished.

"Exactly," Nete concurred. "If they hold off we get time to recharge, if they send their faster ships ahead they hit us with less firepower. Either way we're better off than facing them head on."

"Good thinking, Admiral," Ricton mumbled as the _Rising Sun_'s bow rotated left as the ship's main engines activated at full thrust. The helmsman followed the _Lynx_ away from the Insectoid reserve fleet…and closer toward Colorban and the battle that was raging on the other side.

With a few moments to spare, Ricton adjusted the holo controls and checked on the status of Lord Corodel's fleet.

He cringed. The other Alliance fleet, twice their size, was in worse condition than they were. Shields were down throughout half the fleet with several ships showing significant hull damage. The other Dreadnaught carrier had apparently been destroyed, but two of the other four Insectoid attack groups were now engaging the Alliance fleet at point blank range…and Lord Corodel wasn't backing down.

Ricton knew the Alliance cruisers had been specifically designed to be tough to kill, even without shields, and it looked like the Warlord was putting that theory to the test. Meanwhile, the third Insectoid assault fleet had just finished off one of Colorban's defense stations and had begun to reposition itself into transit lines pointed toward the main battle. Its 16 corvettes would be in range within twelve minutes, with its 27 remaining frigates five minutes later. The destroyers and cruisers would be within attack range inside of half an hour.

Only two of the four Mon Cal warships had survived the initial assault, but both were shieldless and pitted with hull breaches…but now they were being shielded by a protective ring of cruisers fighting around them and the other barely operational defense station. Rim League fighters from the other two defense stations darted about on the holo, hunting down the remaining wisps from the dreadnaught as well as those launched from some of the enemy cruisers, while groups of B-wings were making strafing runs on the 101 Insectoid capital ships as they slugged it out with the Alliance cruisers.

Ricton zoomed out and checked their present course. He nodded with understanding. They were intentionally fleeing in the direction of the main battle. The time it would take them to get to the other side of the planet would allow them to be in a position to reinforce Corodel's fleet with their partially recharged shields, even if it meant drawing the undamaged support fleet into the fray with them.

Apparently the Insectoids realized this and chose not to wait, because their corvettes and frigates were gaining on them while the enemy destroyers struggled to gain ground and the two cruisers were left behind.

"Helm, move us to the rear of the formation. We've got the highest shields in the fleet, we ought to take the brunt of the attack," Ricton said loud enough for everyone on the bridge to hear.

"The Admiral just ordered us so," Nete added.

Ricton smiled. "Glad we're in agreement."

The _Rising Sun_'s expert helmsman drifted the giant ship out of line and decreased thrust just enough to allow the other ships to inch ahead of them as the 106 Insectoid corvettes entered weapons range on the trailing ships, _Rising Sun_ included.

The 18 aft-firing weapons batteries on each of the four trailing cruisers opened up on a single corvette, pouring as much combined firepower into it as possible while the enemy fleet moved alongside and within the retreating cruiser formation.

Within 30 seconds the small corvette was hulled. It broke up and the resulting debris fell behind into the approaching frigate formation, causing them to go evasive and delay their arrival by a few more precious seconds.

Meanwhile, the Insectoid corvettes made the mistake of flanking the cruiser formation…which brought them into the sights of the silent, fore-mounted weapons batteries. They had tracked to port and starboard before the corvettes had even come into range, just waiting for the chance to do some damage…and damage they did.

Had the Insectoids hung behind and targeted the cruisers' engines then they'd have had a chance at isolating one from the fleet and pouncing on in en mass, but their overly aggressive attack pattern brought the tiny corvettes far too close to the fleet's lateral lines. Wave after wave of blue turbolaser blasts tore apart the ships as they tried to target the shieldless cruisers in the front of the staggered, double-line formation.

It was a disaster that the corvettes couldn't recover from, nor flee from…the weapons fire was simply too intense. Instead, the dying corvettes tried to ram the cruisers, who used their tractor beams to deflect the failing ships away from their suicidal course or at the very least divert them into glancing blows.

Still, damage was done to the cruisers. Some were now showing holes in their armor, exposing the inner decks of the ship to space. Fortunately none of the damage reached any critical systems, including the engines. All 22 cruisers continued on course without delay, though a few were now trailing smoke into the trailing frigate formation as it opened up exclusively on the _Rising Sun_.


	26. Chapter 26

"Helm, turn us into them," Ricton yelled over the bridge alarms and near constant rumblings coming from the hull. "If we're going down, we're taking as many of these bastards with us as we can!"

"Maneuvering engines are only at a quarter power, sir," the helmsman replied.

"It'll do," Ricton said as his ship's armor plating blew out along the starboard ridgeline. "Shields, have we got anything yet?"

"Negative, Captain," Nete answered. He'd abandoned his position in the Captain's chair and was currently hovering behind the bridge control stations. Any orders from Admiral Harris were now moot. The _Rising Sun_ was dying.

Ricton slammed his fist into the railing. "Pull power from the laser batteries, main engines, tractor beams, life support…whatever it takes. Get those shields back up before all the emitters are taken out!"

"I'm on it," Nete answered quickly. He pushed a Lieutenant from his seat and started to power down as many systems as he could get his hands on. First was the main engines, which had already been irrevocably damaged. They'd fallen back from the fleet as soon as they'd been hit, and with only 9 percent thrust remaining the Insectoid frigates _and_ destroyers had caught up to them within three minutes.

The Commander worked the power distribution controls as fast as his fingers would move, cutting power from system after system and redirecting it to the shield capacitors as they gathered enough energy to reinitialize the shield matrix. Without enough power the shields would form too weak and fail within seconds, which would require the matrix to be reformatted yet again…and that would take time they didn't have.

Six percent energy was required before the computer controls would activate the energy barrier over the upper port bow, which covered only a single segment of the hull, but it would absorb part of the torrent of turbolaser blasts that were tearing off the _Rising Sun_'s thick armor.

Ricton felt his feet lighten a moment after the laser batteries powered down, leaving the ship vulnerable to the isolated missile launch that the Insectoid ships confusingly employed, but right now that didn't matter. The damage being sustained was far greater than any of their sparsely fired missiles could inflict.

The light feeling confused the Captain for a split second, then he realized that Nete had reduced artificial gravity throughout the ship. Ricton steadied himself, then walked closer to the tactical display as he saw the other cruisers begin flipping over.

A tight feeling gripped his chest. They were coming back for them.

A small section of the ship's diagram on the holo suddenly turned blue. "We have partial shields, Captai..." Nete said as a shockwave took the rest of his breath away.

Ricton and several other crewmembers suddenly found themselves propelled toward the ceiling due to the low gravity and a nearby explosion on the ship. "What was that?" he asked even before landing on the deck.

"Power conduit blew," Nete answered. "Four starboard batteries are dark."

"Damn," Ricton muttered. "Power down all of the turbolaser batteries and give me full shields…I don't care how weak they are."

"Captain, I can't give you full shields," Nete said as all the return fire from the _Rising Sun_ simultaneously ended. "We've lost four aft shield generators, there's a gap over the port aft section."

"Now, Commander! We're losing pieces of the hull to space!"

"Five seconds," Nete insisted. "Wait…now!"

The _Rising Sun_ pulsed blue on the holo for the first time in what seemed like hours…all except the small aft section. "I don't know how long they'll hold, Captain," Nete warned.

"I'll take what I can get," Ricton said gratefully as a flurry of blue turbolaser blasts passed over the forward ridgeline and impacted one of the Insectoid frigates. It was coming from the _Lynx,_ which was closing on them fast…too fast.

The Captain stared at the holo in disbelief. "What are you doing, Mensa?"

* * *

Admiral Harris watched the slaughter on the holo with a mixture of disgust and detachment. He'd ordered the fleet back to engage the trailing Insectoids, leaving Lord Corodel's fleet to fend for itself on the other side of the planet, and had done so without hesitation. He wasn't about to leave one of his ships to die, especially since they'd been the ones taking the hits for the shieldless cruisers, his _Endeavor_ included.

However, he hadn't intended for Captain Mensa to take the _Lynx_ into the fray at full thrust. The cruiser dove into the Insectoid formation, weapons blazing, using its tractor beams to push what ships it could out of its way, but one in particular could not be moved in time.

The _Lynx _rammed tip first into one of the enemy destroyers, sending it spinning to port with a jagged rip down its flank. The first twenty or so meters of the _Lynx's_ forward tip had been torn clean off, imbedded into the destroyer's hull. The two ships listed, with the destroyer hitting another of its kin while the initial collision rotated the _Lynx_'s aft to starboard in the direction of a nearby frigate.

Fortunately Mensa and his crew were no fools. The _Lynx_'s tractor beams moved the frigate aside and avoided another impact while the ship's batteries blew through the frigate's shields and punctured its armor all the way to the central power core.

The frigate plumped from an internal explosion, then ripped apart in an oversized, debris-ridden fireball. The debris quickly cooled, only to be vaporized as the _Lynx_'s engines fired at 120 percent to kill their forward momentum and bring them back toward the fractured, and once again shieldless, _Rising Sun_.

The Admiral tore his view away from the _Lynx_ and focused on the enemy nearest his own ship. "Take them," he said to his Master Gunner as he pointed at a pair of frigates deliberately blocking the path to the _Endeavor_'s sister ship, "then move us alongside the _Rising_ _Sun_ and extend our shields to cover them."

* * *

Half an hour later the battle was over. Admiral Harris hadn't lost a single cruiser in the fight, but the amount of damage to his fleet was significant, with the _Rising Sun_ taking the worst of the beating. Twelve of her decks had been exposed to space, 70 percent of her weapons batteries had been destroyed, her hangar bay had blown out when an auxiliary generator had been hit, and her engines were all but inoperable…but the superstructure of the ship was intact and salvageable.

He'd just ordered the _Devotion_ to tow her out of the system to rendezvous with one of the Alliance's mobile shipyards for refit and repair, and he could see the two cruisers even now starting to limp their way clear of Colorban's gravity well.

By some stroke of luck, or skill, Lord Corodel's force had beat back the Insectoids without losing a single ship, which had been their plan all along, but his fleet was also showing significant hull damage. All together, 13 ships would be out of commission until proper reconstruction could take place in drydock. The lesser damaged cruisers would have to make temporary repairs in space as they waited for their next deployment orders.

All in all it had been a costly defense of a single system, and even though the Alliance had destroyed many Insectoid ships, a significant portion of their assault fleet was even now fleeing the system...and would one day have to be reckoned with again.

Harris squinted at the holo with red-rimmed eyes and his voice dropped back to icy cold. "We're not finished yet, gentlemen," he said, pointing at a portion of the Insectoid fleet as it rushed toward the planet's surface.

"They're landing ground troops," he said between clenched teeth. "They're planning on coming back."


	27. Chapter 27

"Master Jedi," the pilot's voice said through the overhead speakers, "we'll be over the target in two minutes. Prepare yourself."

Kas stood up from his seat on the upper deck of the _Aurora_-class shuttle that had ferried him all the way from Telos to Colorban as he pulled his supply pack onto his shoulders overtop of his Jedi robes.

"Good luck, sir," the weapons Sergeant said as he handed Kas an arm-long assault rifle painted in greens, browns, and blacks. He nodded back his thanks and descended the short staircase to the lower hold where another Sergeant and a Specialist stood by the aft boarding ramp controls.

He felt a small rumble and heard several impacts on the shuttle's shields. "Small arms fire," the pilot's voice explained, "nothing to worry about. Landing zone in 30."

The Specialist touched the comms earpiece he wore then caught the Jedi's attention. "Ground unit checks in. You're good to go."

Kas waited with the pair of Alliance soldiers through his final seconds before being dropped into Colorban's war zone. Once he hit dirt he was to rendezvous with one of the Avenger units already on planet and help them discover how the Insectoids had managed to land so many troops in so few ships.

Ever since the space battle had concluded, things on the surface had gone bezerk. The 79 insectoid warships that had delivered the troops had landed on one of Colorban's heavily forested, yet uninhabited continents and formed a tight perimeter around a small lake. They had redeployed their ships' shields above the ground and interlaced them to form a formidable barrier against orbital bombardment.

Without proper accuracy the Alliance fleet had little chance of downing the impromptu deflector shield and they knew it. Instead they stood guard overhead while planet-based raptor fighter squadrons made reconnaissance attack runs on the Insectoid landing zone.

As they'd quickly discovered, the Insectoid shipboard weaponry worked as well on the ground as it did in space and made for an intimidating deterrent against strafing runs. However, the weapons had been designed to track capital ships, not starfighters. Thus the Alliance pilots, with enough skill and luck, could maneuver between and around the Insectoid defensive fire and launch missiles or torpedoes beneath the kilometer high deflector shield and directly into the exposed hulls of the grounded capital ships.

That had turned out to be easier said than done. The Insectoid ships had carried over a hundred wisps within them, and combined with the heavy weapons batteries they made for a formidable aerial defense.

Which left a ground assault as the only viable means of assault until Rim League warships with decent bombardment capability could arrive and overpower the deflector shield. Lord Corodel had ordered a containment perimeter be established around the enemy base until the promised Mon Calamari star cruisers would arrive.

Fifteen hours into the ground campaign all that changed when a second, more powerful Insectoid deflector shield activated. This planet-based version had been shipped in piecemeal on the cruisers and assembled dead center in the captured lake. It extended its protective barrier 2.3 kilometers out from the shoreline, where the Insectoids quickly began clear-cutting the forest and burrowing underground. By the time Alliance command had realized their mistake, the Insectoids had already erected a number of defense turrets around the perimeter and were raising additional structures at an alarming rate.

But that hadn't been the worst of it. When the Alliance ground troops had made their first assault on the base they'd met significant resistance, but had managed to down two turret towers and open up a brief hole in the Insectoids' outer aerial defense grid. This allowed a number of strafing runs on the outer fringes of the base that further carved out an Alliance foothold within the Insectoids' perimeter.

Alliance, and eventually Rim League troops, had held this 'beachhead' while making continual probing attacks all around the Insectoid lines, looking for a weakness to exploit or just gaining a precious opportunity to kill a few of the limited number of Insectoids that had come down in the transports.

Four weeks into the engagement all that changed when the Insectoids launched a counterstrike with overwhelming numbers…far greater than could possibly have been transported to the surface. After two days the Alliance was forced to pull back to its original containment perimeter and fight the Insectoids far away from their new base.

Kas lept off the boarding ramp before it was even halfway down and landed with a crunch in the forest underbrush. He glanced up as the shuttle lifted up through the forest canopy and headed away from the Insectoid base…probably to Colorban's nearest spaceport, Kas didn't know for sure, but he did recognize the sound of incoming aircraft. He saw green laser fire streak by overhead, quickly followed by two wisps.

He focused his senses back on the ground and felt two lifeforms approaching his position from the west. His left hand fell over the handle of his lightsaber while his right lowered his assault rifle gently to the ground. He slid his pack off his shoulders and stepped behind one of Colorban's meter-wide trees.

As the two quickly approached he felt another three trailing behind. The fact that there were five was reassuring, but not enough for him to expose his position. He moved from tree to tree, keeping himself concealed while subtly circling around to the right.

A moment later he caught sight of them…two green and black-clad armored figures. His assigned Avenger team, he guessed.

"Here," he said aloud while stepping into view. His hand was still on his lightsaber.

"Master Jedi, we feared the worst," the shorter one said as he quickly approached.

Kas frowned. "Why?"

"Your shuttle was shot down a moment ago," the other said as his helmeted head rotated back and forth. Clearly he was concerned about the immediate area. "A lucky shot at range by one of their cruisers. We weren't sure if you'd gotten off or not."

Kas glanced over his should in the direction that the shuttle had gone. "I didn't hear anything."

"Not here," the first said, "ten klicks off…I'm 1st Lieutenant Maver, this is Specialist Sern. We're your Avenger squad, along with three others behind us."

"Jedi Knight Kas Mati. Where do we go from here?" the Chiss said, not wasting any time. He too, like Luke, no longer accepted the rank of Master.

"Supply depot," Maver said after a glance at Kas, "we've got to get you equipped before we head in."

"No need," Kas said, lifting a hand to his left, "I've already received my gear. What's our best approach to their base?"

Maver hesitated to answer as he saw Kas's pack and assault rifle float out of the forest and into his hands. "Don't know," he said at last. "We'll just have to snoop around until we find an opportunity."

"Lead on then, Lieutenant."

"Ah, technically, sir, you're in command," Maver said, almost apologizing.

"How long have you trained with your squad, Maver?" Kas asked.

"Seven years."

"I've known you less than seven minutes," Kas countered. "Until I get a feel for the unit and how you operate, it's best if I just tag along," he said as the other three Avengers emerged from the trees.

"Actually, we're supposed to adapt to you, not the other way around." Maver pointed to the others. "This is 2nd Lieutenant Cinde, Sergeant Oris, and Specialist Petras. What are your orders, sir?"

Kas glanced at each one of their armored figures, unable to link up facial features to names, so he mentally recorded heights, widths, and movement profiles. "I can move faster than any of you, so don't wait up for me. Maver, get us moving along the Insectoids' perimeter and keep us moving until I say otherwise," he said as he pulled a headset out of his pack and fastened it across his forehead and onto his right ear.

"Yes, sir," Maver said, responding instantly. He made a few quick hand motions to his men and they all jogged off into the forest.

Kas fastened his pack's clasp over his chest and cinched the belts tight over his robe. He glanced at his departing team and shook his head. He unfastened his pack and pulled off his large, baggy, brown overrobe and took off after them, pulling his pack back over his shoulders as he went.

His Jedi robe lay abandoned on the ground behind him as Kas effortlessly sprinted to catch up with the others.


	28. Chapter 28

"Stay with them, Lieutenant," Jyr urged from the _Razor-47_'s bridge command ring.

"Yes, sir," Nellis affirmed as he adjusted the frigate's course to match that of the Insectoid corvette they were pursuing.

"Guns, give me two turbolaser shots into their aft," Jyr ordered. "Let's see if we can weaken their shields a bit, then return to ion fire."

The two oversized weapons batteries on the frigate tracked downward as the corvette altered course. Each fired a single burst at the thin aft connection point for the two forward lobes that made up the odd structure of the Insectoid warship. They'd tracked the ship and others for more than five days as they met up with several Insectoid capital ships on escort duty for what the Alliance had guessed were cargo ships. They'd waited impatiently for an opportunity to hit an isolated Insectoid warship and had finally gotten their opportunity when this lone corvette had broken off from its caravan and headed back rimward on its own.

The top-mounted turbolaser blast missed wide as the corvette lurched to starboard, but the bottom-mounted battery hit its target, further depleting its already weakened shields. Soon after the hit, the two forward mounted ion cannon batteries in the lateral modular sections of the Alliance frigate resumed their assault on the corvette's shields in an attempt to capture the enemy ship before it could escape or receive reinforcements.

The mission had been of Lord Jyr's making. He intended to give his techs a closer look at the Insectoid naval technology which was strikingly similar to their own with a distinctive nonhuman twist. Turbolasers, shields, realspace engines, hyperspace engines, missiles…all seemed standard tech for this galaxy. Yet these Insectoids had never before been encountered in this galaxy, the Shadow Alliance had pulled a thorough records search to be sure, so their origins still remained a mystery.

But more than that, Jyr wanted hull samples, shield frequencies, missile specs, pulse laser construction(which had proven more potent than any known designs), power source output, engine thrust analysis, and anything else that would help him narrow down the Insectoids' technological capabilities…and possibly highlight a weakness.

"Their shields are down, my Lord," Captain Ansar noted.

Jyr nodded his contentment as he watched additional ion blasts wash over the corvette's exposed hull. The ship lurched to the left again, causing two additional blasts to miss cleanly, but the helmsman brought the ship forward into flanking position, which allowed the port ion cannons their first chance to fire on the target.

Two minutes later the corvette was dead in space.

"Prep the shuttle," Jyr ordered as he walked off the bridge.

* * *

Six minutes later the Jedi reappeared in the hangar bay fully armored and armed in an environmental combat suit. He boarded the _Aurora_-class shuttle's port cargo container without comment and stood by the specially mounted grapple hatch as the shuttle exited the frigate's tiny hangar bay with haste. Time was of the essence…they didn't know how long they had until Insectoid reinforcements would arrive.

The mic in Jyr's helmet buzzed online. "We have confirmation that the corvette's weaponry is offline. Permission to proceed?" the pilot asked.

"Permission granted, Ensign. Grapple point four please."

"On our way now, sir."

Aer-ki waited patiently while the shuttle flew over to the corvette and nestled itself up alongside its green/white hull. He heard the grapple attach and pull tight, quickly followed by the sound of mechanical abrasion. After a few long minutes of anticipation the hatch indicator in front of him turned green.

"Hatch secure. You're good to go, sir," the pilot said before adding, "Good luck."

"If Insectoid reinforcements arrive," Jyr cautioned, "and I tell you to leave…don't hesitate."

There was a slight pause on the comm. "Understood, sir."

Jyr reached down and toggled the hatch release. The circular panel irised open to reveal a meter long 'tunnel' that had been cut through the corvette's hull. The corresponding plug lay on the ground inside one of the ship's corridors…and was surrounded by three Insectoids with forearm mounted weapons aimed upward at him…

Jyr jerked backward as the blaster bolts shot up the ceiling above him. He reached out with the force and 'pushed' down the tunnel, knocking the Insectoids off their pointed feet. A moment later he dropped through into the corridor on top of them. Three quick slashes with his lightsaber ended the firefight almost before it began.

He flicked his helmet's tongue switch with the force. "I'm in. Keep me apprised of any outside activity."

"All quiet at the moment, sir," the eager pilot reported.

The Jedi's helmeted head glanced both directions down the five-sided corridor as he simultaneously stretched out his force senses. He picked up numerous lifeforms within the ship, but none in the immediate vicinity. He knew that wouldn't last for long.

Feeling out the closest lifeform, he did a more precise location check and headed in that direction at a quick run in the marginally lower gravity on the Insectoid ship. Within twenty seconds he encountered another of the four-legged Insectoids and cut it in half before it could get off a shot.

He kept moving, knowing that surprise would only last so long before the crew realized what was going on. The possibility of the ship having a self destruct device encouraged his haste as he rounded another corner and tallied his fifth and sixth kills.

Ten seconds later he got a surprise of his own when a slightly larger Insectoid burst out from a side compartment and stabbed at him with two long appendages that extruded from its back. Jyr hacked one off with his white blade, but the other impacted his left shoulder.

It drove him back into the wall, but didn't penetrate his armor. The Insectoid shrieked and leveled its forearm blaster at his face and fired.

A simple force push redirected the weapon upward where the green blast tore chunks of pale paneling from the ceiling. Jyr launched himself off the wall and slashed through the _two-legged_ creature's arm and abdomen. The odd-looking blaster fell to the deck along with the Insectoid's upper thorax. Aer-ki took a quick look at the new variety of Insectoid before darting off down the hallway in search of more targets.

He felt multiple contacts ahead and increased his speed. He reached down and snatched his second lightsaber from his hip recess a moment before using the force to break open a sealed hatch in front of him. The hatch flew inward, followed a split second by Jyr, into a large, indescribable chamber filled with dozens of Insectoids.

One of the little 'scouts' that he'd encountered in the Dekata system immediately lept at his ankles with its razor claws while others hefted forearm blasters in his direction.

One lightsaber went down, clipping the scout before it could touch him, while the other came up, held in a defensive position. He waited until a second scout impaled itself on his blade before he moved further into the chamber with his defensive blade redirecting green blasts into sticky walls and glowing display screens.

Bringing his second saber up to help deflect the incoming bolts as he charged forward, he reached out with the force and threw four of the four-legged Insectoids to the ground while the others opened up on him with a hail of blaster fire…more than he could possibly block, even with two blades.

His armor took three hits, none of which penetrated completely. By that time he was within arms reach of half of the two-meter tall creatures and used their stocky bodies as barricades against the bulk of the blaster fire.

He cut through them two and three at a time until only a handful remained on the other side of the chamber. Their blaster fire he easily blocked or deflected back into them. He downed two in such a manner before he closed into saber range and finished the rest off.

The room was eerily silent, but he could feel several others heading his way from outside. He ran towards the nearest exit, glancing at the latticework of small cubicles imbedded into the walls. He could let his techs divine what they were later. Right now he had a ship to clean out.

Sixty meters and three kills later, Jyr emerged into one of the two 'lobes' that made up the bow of the ship. This lobe contained another large chamber full of crates and four of the biped Insectoids.

Two of them jumped upward and landed on crates four meters above their heads while they pumped blaster bolts towards his black-armored form. He deflected the shots while working his way around several containers, grabbing what cover he could. The other two stayed on the deck, giving him something to worry about while the top two took pot shots at him with impunity…or so they thought.

Jyr ducked out from behind cover wielding only one lightsaber. His other hand came forward while his saber blocked blaster fire, then all of a sudden it jutted forward. Simultaneously, one of the two bipeds fell backward off the crates and landed agilely on all fours on the deck. It stood back up, looking confused, then began to climb/jump back up on top of the crates.

Meanwhile Jyr had used the opportunity to close with one of the two bipeds on the floor. He ambushed it while it came around a corner, neatly slicing off its gun arm before a quick jump and flick of his wrist decapitated the 2.5-meter tall creature. Its head fell to the ground next to its body and blaster arm while Jyr ran off behind cover.

Soon the other Insectoid found its dead kin, crouched over it for a moment, then cautiously walked forward…right into a cascade of force lightning. It doubled over in pain, only to look up afterward to see Jyr's black armor and white lightsaber coming down at it from overhead. The tip of the blade impacted its cranium and drove straight down through its head, neck, and thorax.

Jyr deactivated, then reactivated his lightsaber to clear it from the biped's corpse. He wicked it around into a defensive position, but no blaster fire came. He took this as a good sign and moved off to search for the other two.

Seventy seconds later they lay cleaved in half on top of the crates while Jyr exited into a nearby chamber. He continued to clear out section after section for another five minutes until he finally came to the last group of lifeforms that he could sense…sealed behind a thick bulkhead door.

Without hesitation he thrust the tip of his white blade through the tough material and arced it around in a slow circle, melting a line in the alloy as he went. When he had nearly completed the circle he began to push on it with the force. He felt it bend inward just before he made the final cut. It dropped a centimeter as he flung the heavy projectile a meter or two inside the chamber, where it thudded on the ground on top of one of the Insectoids' legs.

Suddenly all of the Insectoids in the room were pushed backward, off balance, as the Jedi dive-rolled through the hole and came up swinging. A few seconds later the room was silent and strewn with severed body parts. Jyr stretched out with his senses but couldn't detect any other lifeforms.

"Captain, what's the corvette's current lifeform count?"

"We read two," Ansar reported after a quick sensor scan.

Jyr frowned inside his helmet and focused harder. After a moment he detected a faint presence back towards the aft of the ship. He mentally recorded the position versus the basic ship layout and ran off in that direction. Two decks lower and several hundred meters of running later he felt the faint signal again, this time without concentrating. He pinned down its location and arrived outside one of the flimsy doors that he'd encountered across the ship. One quick cut through the locking mechanism and the pale peach-colored panel retracted into the wall.

Jyr took one step into the room them found himself frozen for a microsecond. He forced himself to keep moving past the dozens of bones and limbs scattered throughout the small room. He focused on the lifeform and quickly realized it was coming from a small compartment on the floor to his left.

He pried open the lid to find a Human male lying inside, naked, and missing his right arm below the elbow. His body was encased in a crystalline material and the container seemed to contain some type of mechanism. The force sense Jyr was getting was a mixture of horror and sedation. The man was in some sort of stasis pod.

"Ensign, you may detach and return to the ship. I'm going to need you to retrieve a few personnel for me."

"Yes, sir…is something wrong?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Ensign," Jyr said, picking up on the pilot's concern. "Just a small change of plans. Get going."

"Already detached, sir."

"Captain," Jyr said after switching comm frequencies, "the ship is secure. I need you to send over a couple of engineering techs plus the ship's med tech."

"Are you injured?" Ansar asked. "We're still reading a second lifeform."

"It's a wounded human being held in some type of stasis. I need the techs to release him from the mechanism and the med tech to deal with a severed arm and an extreme state of shock."

"Severed arm?" Ansar asked suspiciously.

"Food for them, I suspect."

Over the comm line he could hear Ansar gulp. "Yes, sir. I'll get the techs over there as soon as the shuttle returns."

"After they get here tow the corvette into hyperspace," Jyr ordered. "We can work here on the way."

"What about the shuttle?"

"Best it ride in the hangar bay," the Jedi said as he removed his right gauntlet and put his bare hand on top of the human's exposed forehead, "I doubt the connection will hold up to the stress of a tractor beam."

"It will be done, my Lord."

Jyr knelt next to the pod and connected as he could with the prisoner through the force. He didn't move a centimeter until the techs arrived and began to examine the mechanism holding the man in place.


	29. Chapter 29

Three weeks after Kas had left, Luke finally gave up on the rest of his candidates and dismissed them back to their original duties. He brought in another group and started over…this time with more success.

A month of training saw three of thirty pass the initial training regimen, with the remainder being swapped out for another batch of fresh candidates. Luke had quickly learned how to differentiate between those who were open to the new training and those who weren't, and he wasn't about to waste his time on the obstinate while Jyr and the rest of the galaxy were out fighting the Insectoids.

He oversaw the continued training of his three potentials while vetting the newest batch of candidates in a record two weeks. This new group spawned four more hopefuls who were thrown up against Jyr's required tests while Luke gave subtle advice at key points, but otherwise left them alone.

As his training cabal grew in number and his efforts began to pay off with two new Avenger-qualified Jedi taking to the field, the war against the Insectoids took a turn for the worst. Several new invasion corridors had been opened up and the evacuation of Colorban had begun.

A disturbing report from Kas had indicated that the excessive number of Insectoid ground troops on Colorban had been the result of millions of eggs carried to the surface, which had germinated, hatched, and grown to adulthood within weeks. Alliance and League troops had lost half the continent when a number of fast-moving transports emerged from hyperspace and drove towards the surface before orbital forces could respond.

These ships landed and augmented the Insectoid ground forces, which had managed to construct several new bases on and below forested surface. A few weeks later, once the newly arrived eggs had hatched, a new offensive ensued and the remainder of the continent had been lost. An evacuation of the planet had then been ordered and was continuing at present while allied ground troops fought to hold back the overland assault long enough to get everyone off-world.

Luke wanted to be out there, doing something, but he reluctantly agreed with Jyr. Retraining the Jedi would have long-term consequences, but it had to begin _now_ if it was going to make a difference down the line, and Luke was the only person other than Jyr capable of overseeing the retraining.

"Patience…," Luke said to himself, "…is overrated."

He hit the start button and set himself. Fortunately, he had an outlet for his frustration.

The floating droids moved forward en mass along the color-coded corridor, far too many for him to stop before they reached the terminus line.

Luke ran forward and uppercut the closest one with a satisfying crunch, then spun to his left and backhanded another with enough impact to reach the pressure limit and send it floating off the corridor and back to one of the intake receptacles on the wall.

He hit another, and another, and another, but there were too many moving too fast for him to intercept before they reached the line. But then again, that was the point. He'd set the difficulty level to 38, a full ten levels higher than he'd ever been able to sustain for even the minimum time requirement. He didn't want an easy drill, he didn't want a hard drill, he wanted to be hit hard, to be overwhelmed. It just didn't feel right to sit here training while others were out fighting and dying.

He wanted to hurt, he wanted to lose…he wanted to make it as close to impossible as he could, so he would have something to fight against too. No tempered training, no slow ascension. He wanted to fight…and fight he did.

Luke reached out with the force and drug ten of the heavy droids backwards and punched two of them simultaneously, followed by a side kick into another as it tried to slip past. He crushed another's impact plating with his elbow and head-butted a third.

Luke reacted to the pain and moved faster, noting the thin line of blood seeping from his forehead. He punched, kicked, pulled, even crushed with the force droid after droid, but he couldn't hold them back forever, and he didn't care.

_Just a little longer. One more, two more, ten more…don't give in. They don't have the luxury, so neither should you! _

Luke jumped sideways, kicking forward with both feet and knocking one droid off the corridor and into the side wall. The Jedi barely hit the ground before a roundhouse kick simultaneously downed two more and led into a reverse elbow for a third. He jumped forwards and backwards, nothing flashy or flamboyant, simple straight line, efficient movements coming with dizzying speed.

He hit more and more and more, completely losing track of time, or count, or thought. Luke moved with pure movement, no longer thinking academically. He thought _as_ he moved, not before he moved. There was no stopping, no resting, no waiting. It was one continuous string of actions melded into a single, never-ending movement.

Suddenly the droids stopped, with Luke knocking aside six more before realizing that the session was over. He glanced behind him and saw three sitting past the terminus line. He punched another out of spite, then noticed a Jedi watching him and the scoreboard with wide eyes.

Luke's vision blurred as a streak of blood flowed into his eye. He swiped it away and blew out a calming breath. "Did you need something, Eryc?"

The young Twi'lek stammered a bit before he found his voice. "You're overdue for our lesson, Master."

Luke frowned and glanced at the clock on the scoreboard. "I'll be with you shortly. Have the stunsabers ready."

"Yes, Master," the Jedi said to Luke's back before he retreated out the door. Luke's eyes hadn't left the scoreboard.

**2:48:32.07 Facility Record**

Luke didn't believe it. His best guess would have been five, maybe ten minutes. Previously he hadn't even been able to last 60 seconds on an easier level. Now, if the scoreboard was to be believed, he'd just bested Jyr's top mark by over _an hour_.

Luke glanced down at his raw knuckles, some of which were also bleeding. He glanced back at the door where his student had just departed. _I had an hour and a half before their session._

He stood in the center of the corridor as the droids slowly floated back into the intake receptacles. He shook his head to clear it and, finding the same stats on the board, he slowly walked away, not sure what had just happened.

* * *

Kas cut through one of the warrior-class Insectoids just as it thrust one of its lance-like appendages at his throat. He rolled to the left, swiping his double-bladed lightsaber around with him, cutting through the legs of another. He got his feet under him and thrust down through its ovoid head.

The bug dropped dead and Kas had a brief moment to himself. He reached to his ear. "Where are we?"

"Last transport's loading now. Estimate four minutes to takeoff."

"Good," Kas said before glancing to his right. _Movement_. "How's the shuttle?"

"On our way to pick you up now, boss."

"Head to the courtyard, I'll meet you there," he said, reigniting his blue blades as two scout-class Insectoids ran at him from the underbrush.

He slashed low and stepped backward, cutting through one of the critters while giving him time to down the other before they were within claw-range. Kas stepped to his right and brought his opposite blade down from above in an angular power-slash that dug half a meter into the forest floor. Without waiting to be targeted again, the Chiss took off through the woods and quickly emerged onto the outer edge of Kittick, a small city/outpost that was the last on the planet to be evacuated.

Kas deflected two green blasts from afar as he sprinted down a ferrocrete walkway, then jumped over a downed speeder before hanging a hard right onto a narrow path between buildings. He emerged into a small, but wide open courtyard with a Shadow Alliance shuttle hovering two meters above the flagstones as it shot apart a pair of Insectoid warriors approaching from the left.

Kas wasted no time and jumped up into the open hatch. His avenger team sealed the door behind him and kicked in the repulsors a split second later. The _Aurora_-class shuttle roared upward and made for space alongside a monstrous transport and its A-wing escort. Overhead the Rim League fleet held position, screening for the transports and beginning to bombard the surface now that the evacuation was complete. The Insectoid planetary shields didn't yet extend this far out, and the Mon Cal Captains had apparently decided to take the opportunity to do what damage they could to the Insectoid ground forces before they made the final pullout.

Kas watched out the viewport at the rain of red turbolaser bolts as they tore into the forest that he had just departed. Off in the distance he could just make out the outline of a massive building that the Insectoids had begun constructing near their original landing site, safely protected under a formidable shield array.

Kas sighed, and drew the attention of one of his Avengers. "You ok, boss?"

The Chiss's red eyes glowed in the soldier's direction. "I don't like losing."


	30. Chapter 30

"My Lord, Naboo is under assault again, and I fear this time they will not be able to hold out," Lord Trevel warned as he brought up a real-time holographic display of the battle.

Jyr and the other Shadow Alliance Warlords starred intently at the images, not one of them saying a word. Scores of red Republic warships were intertwined with the green/blue Insectoid fleet in a massive furball reminiscent of a starfighter dogfight…only on a much more massive scale.

Intermixed alongside the Republic defense fleet were the deep gray hulls of the Free Trade Alliance, a coalition of isolated worlds sprinkled across the galaxy who had been perpetually at odds with the Republic of Independent Systems…but it seemed the dire situation the galaxy faced had brought them together as allies in defense of the Republic capitol.

The battle was not going well. The smaller Republic fleet of Royal Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates, and Corvettes were seriously out-massed in what had devolved into a slugging match at point blank range. The Republic's cruiser spanned 1,200 meters, slightly larger than its Shadow Alliance cousin, but not nearly as well armed or armored. Their only saving grace was that their current number in orbit above Naboo numbered _over 700_.

The FTA fleet was also on the smaller side, with their droid run cruisers measuring 1,000 meters each. Their fleet did sport 1,500 meter-long carriers, but they, like the Republic forces, had no heavy hitters in their navies…and they were paying a heavy price because of it.

The Insectoids' 5th brood, as the green/blue variants had come to be labeled, had brought the largest Insectoid fleet seen to date, including a score of battleships and dreadnaughts that were unmatched and dominating the battlefield. But that wasn't the worst of it…the Insectoids had also brought in one of their massive 15,000 meter-long Hive Ships directly into the middle of the battle.

"Lord Jyr," Annis Seviss said with the utmost respect, "we can't wait any longer. We have to commit our coreward forces en mass to the defense of the Rim."

A few of the other Warlords nodded their agreement while they watched the ongoing battle. Aer-ki sighed, lowering his head for a moment before responding.

"I know," he said simply. "But if we rush in to engage numbers of this scale" he pointed to the holographic battle with a raised hand, "we will lose most of our fleet and any chance of victory in the long run. Hard as it may be, we must be patient and do damage where we can."

"Jyr is right," Lord Arcane agreed between gritted teeth. "If we overcommit we will lose. If we allow ourselves to be goaded into a fight of this size," he pointed at the space brawl and the giant Hive Ship at the center, "we give the enemy exactly what they want. While most of you have been busy fighting the Insectoids I've been having my fleet pulling recon runs out to the rim and studying their tactics in detail. I've found that they prefer fighting in large numbers rather than in individual, ship to ship engagements."

"I can confirm that," Lord Anet added.

Arcane nodded his thanks. "Whereas we excel in small-scale conflicts, due in part to our ships' technological edge, but also to our tactical training. We can fight them en mass and hold our own, but in order to do maximum damage we have to divide their forces and hit them when they're in small numbers."

"To that end," Jyr interjected, "I recommend that Lord Etis and Lord Trevel launch an immediate attack on any known Insectoid forces in close proximity to Naboo."

Trevel rubbed his chin. "Hit them while they're distracted."

"And unable to reinforce," Etis added. "I'll give the order immediately. We need to make them pay for this."

"Before you do," Jyr said quickly before he could disengage his holo, "you'll want this," he said, holding up a small data chip for all to see before he slid it into an input receptacle. He transmitted the contents to all of the Warlords simultaneously.

"We haven't been able to access the Insectoids' computer systems yet, but we have been able to pull some data from their weapon systems and shields," Jyr said, referring to the ongoing study of the captured Insectoid ship. "There are some new shield settings and weapon modulations that should increase our ships' effectiveness against the Insectoids by a few percentage points."

"I'll take whatever I can get," Lord Corodel eagerly said as he pulled up the file and began thumbing through it. His sector of the galaxy had been hardest hit to date along with the Rim League, whose territories overlapped his and had been reduced by a staggering 34 in less than a year. While the Shadow Alliance had only lost three worlds to date, many more stood on the precipice of succumbing to an ever increasing number of Insectoid raids that would eventually escalate into full-scale invasions. Colorban had been the first to fall, but it was not the last. All three fallen Alliance worlds had been in Corodel's domain, and all three had been captured by the green/black Brood #2…who curiously seemed to fight more efficiently and effectively than the other Insectoids.

"Finally!" Lord Sevis yelled.

The other Warlords looked at her questioningly until they noticed a large number of new ships entering orbit above Naboo…Star Destroyers, and lots of them.

"IFF reads Corellian Alliance," Lord Darr noted casually. "Looks like 46 Mark V ImpStars, 56 Victory IIIs, 42 Victory IVs…and one Mark III Super Star Destroyer."

"Looks like the Corellians finally came out to play," Arcane said sarcastically. Ever since the Insectoid invasion began the Corellian navy, the largest and most powerful fleet in the galaxy, had been sitting safely over their coreward worlds while the Rimward nations had been taking the full brunt of the Insectoid assault.

The Shadow Alliance surveillance satellite showed the newly arrived Star Destroyers form up around the Super Star Destroyer _Apex_ as she drove forward at full thrust toward the beleaguered Republic forces. Once in range, her forward batteries opened up on the Insectoid formation, not so much aiming at individual ships but rather at the cloud of vessels in front of her.

Four thousand green lances lept out from the angular hull and streamed into the thousands of Insectoid capital ships in the first salvo alone. Whether due to a lack of situational awareness or an eagerness to get their troops to ground, the Insectoids didn't see the Corellians coming. They lost numerous small ships in the first salvo…ships that could have easily evaded the heavy turbolasers at this range.

That first unanswered salvo would be the Corellians' last. The Insectoid armada, now recognizing the threat coming in from behind them, stirred like a giant hornet's nest and reoriented itself toward the incoming Star Destroyers. The _Apex_ continued to fire into the mess of ships in front of it while the ImpStars and Vics broke up into attack pairs to counter the incoming Insectoid battleships and dreadnaughts, while leaving the enormous Hive Ship to the Super Star Destroyer.

Jyr watched the two sides begin to intermix and engage each other at point blank range while the Corellians began launching a mass of Tie fighters, Interceptors, and Defenders into the fray.

"Get our forces moving," Jyr reminded the two Warlords that had been assigned territories near or including Naboo. "We have a window of opportunity…let's not waste it."


	31. Chapter 31

Ever since his breakthrough session on the corridor drill, Luke had been experiencing flashes of abilities that he'd never possessed before, nor had he ever observed them in any other Jedi, or Sith, over his seven century lifetime.

They were subtle things, like resistance to heat and cold…increased durability of his skin…enhanced sensitivity to sounds previously outside his hearing range. Nothing grandiose that he could put his finger on, but a significant shift in his overall assessment of what a Jedi was capable of.

So back he had gone into the Jedi archives to see if he could find a previous case to compare with. After a thorough search he discovered two ancient Jedi that had experienced a similar upgrade in their physical abilities.

One was Nolaf Tirit, a Twilek who had been a master of physical combat. It was noted that during a decade-long training mission into uncharted parts of the galaxy, Tirit had pushed past his previous limits and "Ascended to a higher tier of Jedi abilities," in his own words. No previous examples of this sort of transformation had ever been recorded, so the Jedi at the time, not completely convinced, had simply recorded the occurrence and Tirit's reflections for posterity.

Those notes, which Luke had been pouring through, were proving to be invaluable as he intensified his own training. Tirit had accurately mapped out the basics for recognizing and utilizing this enhanced Jedi state. A few simple drills that the Jedi Master had left behind had gotten Luke off on the right foot, and soon he had a sufficient understanding of the underlying principles of what Tirit had labeled 'tier 3 abilities' that he was able to adjust Aer-ki's training programs to specifically target and stress these new abilities.

Luke had spent the past few weeks in near seclusion, taking only what time he needed to troubleshoot for his students as they progressed through their own 'tier 1' training. He had actually gone 30 hours straight in one training session without having to fortify himself against fatigue or use any Jedi techniques to prolong one's endurance or sharpness. His students had had to interrupt his training when he was overdue for their morning lesson after having worked straight through the night and into morning on the obstacle courses.

The other Jedi noted in the archives had been Drago Helson, a human Jedi counselor that had been able to push his visual range into the ultra-violet. While that might not be something out of the ordinary for other species, it was previously thought impossible for humans without some sort of technological upgrade or genetic manipulation. Drago hadn't manifested any other 'tier 3' abilities, but had somehow broken through to an advanced level in that single area alone. Luke kept this as a reminder that there were two paths to advancement…specialization and holistic. And he was fairly sure that he was falling into the later.

These revelations aside, there was something else on his mind as of late that concerned him. During another one of his training drills Luke had briefly sensed the distant threat that Aer-ki had told him about years ago. Luke had originally dismissed the notion because he hadn't sensed anything at all, but then had granted the fact that Jyr had been right when the Insectoids had finally shown up.

Aer-ki had said at the time that this wasn't the threat that he had been sensing, and until now Luke hadn't paid much attention to that brief comment…but now was different. He could sense, from time to time, an approaching storm that sent chills down his spine. He couldn't backtrack the source, and the sensation came and went randomly, but Luke was now painfully aware that his friend had been right all along and had been sensing something very real long before Luke had even become dimly aware of it.

Luke kept this knew revelation to himself while pushing his personal training even harder. He now understood why Aer-ki had trained so hard in seclusion for over a century. Whatever was brewing on the horizon was not something to be trifled with, and Luke was going to need every ounce of skill and power that he could get if he was going to survive it.

* * *

On the surface of Naboo, Chancellor Hartis watched grimly as the Insectoid forces pulled out of low orbit and scattered on various hyperspace vectors. They had been unable to land any ground troops, a testament to his fleet's skills and bravery, but the carnage that he'd just witnessed in orbit made him sick to his stomach.

The Republic fleet had been annihilated, only a few damaged ships lingered in orbit above a massive debris field that was even now beginning to fall to ground as fiery meteors. The Free Trade Alliance droid fleet had been equally decimated, leaving the defense of Naboo to the Corellian Alliance…former rivals who had just become allies in one of the bloodiest fights the galaxy had seen in a century.

Burning hulks of star destroyers floated amongst the gangly debris of hundreds of Insectoid ships, including one moon-sized chunk that had belonged to the massive Hive ship that had been destroyed on a kamikaze run by two dying Imperial-class star destroyers. They had punctured its shields and imbedded themselves into its hull before finally detonating what was left of their reactors and cracking the mammoth ship apart.

"Get me a secure line to Corellia," Hartis whispered to his aid. "I need to thank President Norris personally, and see if we can formalize an alliance against these monsters."

* * *

While the battle of Naboo was ending, the Shadow Alliance strikes against the Insectoids were just beginning en mass. Intent on hitting the enemy before they could regroup and send reinforcements, the Alliance fleet split up into small attack groups and hit small to medium targets across Republic and Hutt space over a period of 20 hours, after which a pull-back order was given, anticipating an eventual counter-response.

Supreme Warlord Jyr watched with interest from the other side of the galaxy. He was proud of how well his troops were fighting and penned several commendations that he sent out over their secure comm network…along with notes of errors made and recommendations to increase efficiency. He'd learned long ago that he had to keep his forces looking forward, and congratulations alone had a tendency to soften resolve and lead to stagnation.

Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy was not idle. The other broods were continuing their march toward the core, bypassing key worlds while hitting irrelevant ones…all in keeping with the climate and vegetation counts of the planets in question. It had gotten so predictable that Aer-ki had assembled the bulk of his fleet near Kashyyyk, anticipating that the Insectoids would hit that world within the week.

If Aer-ki's assumption turned out to be valid, it would be the first assault on a Corellian Alliance world…and after their defeat at Naboo, he was sure that the Insectoids would be well prepared to face the Corellians this time around.


	32. Chapter 32

Over the skies of Kashyyyk a Corellian battle fleet orbited in defensive formation, awaiting the inevitable invasion of the Wookiee homeworld. Central intelligence had deduced six likely candidate systems for the Insectoids to hit next…and of the six, Kashyyyk was the sole member of the Corellian Alliance.

After what had happened at Naboo, fleet command was taking no chances with regard to Alliance territory. The 7th, 9th, 12th, and 13th fleets had been dispatched toward the rim to battle the Insectoids directly, while the 14th fleet positioned itself directly in the invasion corridor over friendly skies.

Admiral Brooks's task force out of 14th fleet consisted of _two_ Super-star destroyers, 26 ImpStars, 34 Vics, and over 200 smaller support vessels. He had a delicious mix of heavy firepower and speed, and had been given specific orders to go after any Insectoid forces in the system with a vengeance while leaving the task of keeping ground troops off the surface to the Wookiee home-defense fleet currently orbiting below them in a blockade pattern.

"Admiral Brooks, we have an incoming personal message for you. Unknown sender."

The barrel-chested Admiral frowned. "Put it through to my command chair," he said quietly. Soon a 20-cm hologram materialized over his chair's left armrest. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The unidentified man stared back at him. "We have little time so let's get straight to the point. We've detected an Insectoid fleet moving on your position, we estimate their arrival within half an hour. We request permission to move into escort position around your fleet."

Brooks turned from the hologram to face his Captain. "Order an intensive sensor sweep immediately, and keep at it until I tell you otherwise."

"On it," the Captain said, quickly walking down into the starboard crew pit where he issued the order directly.

"That answers my second question, but not my first. Who are you?" Brooks said, scrutinizing the tiny picture.

"A friend," the tiny holo said as a line of static momentarily ran through the image.

"Admiral," the Captain bellowed out from below, "we have a fleet emerging from hyperspace…they are not Insectoid, but we're not picking up any IFF either."

"I am Warlord Jyr of the Shadow Alliance," the holo said as ship schematics started to materialize on other projectors around the Admiral's command chair. "Shall we move into formation, or would you prefer we tackle this battle from opposite angles?"

Brooks grinned humorlessly. "Shadow Alliance…I was wondering when we'd have a chance to meet face to face. You've got our analysts running circles around their cubicles in frustration, though I did hear that you're largely responsible for the initial success out on the rim?"

"Limited as it is, yes," Jyr answered evenly. "My ships are specifically designed for capital support and have anti-fighter capabilities. I suggest that we will enhance each other's combat abilities if we combine fleets."

"Admiral!" the Captain interrupted, "we're detecting long range hyperspace fluctuations."

"Very well, Captain. Bring the fleet to battle ready," Brooks said calmly before turning back to Jyr's holo. "Permission granted, Warlord. I'll take whatever help I can get."

"Be advised, Admiral, that half my fleet has already seen heavy action against the Insectoids and we've modified our shields and weapons accordingly," Jyr said, motioning to someone off screen. "I'm transmitting what technical data we have on the enemy ships."

A datafile appeared just below Jyr's holographic feet.

Brooks relayed it to the appropriate junior officer with a tap of a button. "Appreciated. Get your ships into position quickly, Warlord. You don't want to get caught in transit when the enemy arrives."

Jyr nodded and his holo vanished. Brooks stood and walked over to the master tactical display.

"Sithspit, their ships are fast," Captain Narsse said under his breath.

"So I have heard," Brooks commented as he watched Jyr's cruisers, destroyers, and frigates surge forward toward his fleet.

* * *

Out on the rim-world of Cheth, Kas knelt down amidst the tall, waving grasses outside the Insectoid skirmish line surrounding their small outpost.

He let the cool night breeze sap the heat from his blue skin while his glowing red eyes scanned the ridge ahead. On the other side was reported to be a small Insectoid encampment, the only one known on this uninhabited world. Surrounding it were at least three imbedded turrets that they'd seen from orbit, and Kas wanted to steer his approach as far away from their fields of fire as possible.

His earpiece whispered a report of movement to the west.

The Jedi directed his attention to the tree line that followed the ridge…and spied movement just inside their perimeter. He pulled out his surveillance scope and got a closer look at the source of the movement.

Kas ground his teeth in frustration. Emerging from the trees walked a ten-meter tall, tank-sized creature on six sharp legs, swinging an enormous ball-mounted tail behind it. No rider or controller of any kind was apparent.

"Stay sharp," Kas whispered into his mic, "looks like we've found another Insectoid variant."

Kas rose into a crouch and slipped through the long grasses as he headed east, away from the biological tank, then cut in towards the ridgeline while his Avenger squad watched him from afar through their sniper scopes.

The Chiss felt two of the Insectoid 'scouts' moving down the ridgeline and decided to beat them across. He surged forward with the speed only a Jedi could manage, weaving in between trees and around dark, moss-covered boulders until he reached the top of the rocky ridgeline and knelt down at a decent observational angle, belatedly sensing the scouts moving past unaware.

The immediate danger aside, he turned his attention to the danger ahead. Down into the valley behind the ridgeline, he spied many more of the tank-like Insectoids patrolling the perimeter…as well as several smaller ones clustered around the center of the base. Given the layout of the buildings and the numbers involved Kas came to the only conclusion he could and keyed his mic.

"It's a nursery for the large creatures," he reported to his squad. "I count at least forty, though there could be more inside the structures. The workers also appear to be digging new tunnels underground. I haven't seen any warriors in the interior, just more of the large ones on patrol."

"What do you want to do about it, Boss?" his team leader asked in a barely audible whisper.

Kas considered what damage he could do on his own, then thought better of it. "Cover me as I come out, then pull back to the extraction point. We need to get this intel to the fleet."


	33. Chapter 33

Jyr flew across the valley, traversing the jungle chasm with one force-enhanced leap. He half knelt on landing, but kept moving none the less. He had to get to the Corellian ground troops before they _all_ died.

The space battle above Kashyyyk had gone well. The combined Shadow Alliance/Corellian Alliance fleet was more than a match for the Insectoids, who eventually withdrew in the face of an untenable invasion. Their ships had broken off their attack and burned hard to escape the planet's gravity well ahead of the faster Shadow Alliance ships nipping at their heals in pursuit, but just before they made it into the clear a second, smaller Corellian fleet emerged from hyperspace ahead of them and used their seventeen interdictor cruisers to extend the Kashyyyk's gravity shadow even further, cutting off the enemy fleet from any possible escape into hyperspace.

The Corellians' heavy star destroyers were slowly catching up to the newly reformed battle when every last Insectoid ship turned and made a mad dash towards the planet's atmosphere…right through the pursuing Corellian fleet.

The Alliance gunners had a field day, ravaging ship after ship as the swarm tried to flee past their massive, angular ships. Three quarters of the Insectoid fleet never emerged from the star destroyer formation, and those that did emerged face to face with the Wookiee defense fleet stationed directly above the planet's atmosphere.

That was the good news…the bad news was that a few dozen ships managed to make it through the orbital gauntlet and touch down or crash land in Kashyyyk's thick forest in a wide array of locations. Soon after they did the Corellians bombarded the landing sites from orbit, hoping to destroy the Insectoid beachhead before it could be formed.

But unlike previous ground incursions, the Insectoids didn't appear to have any strategy beyond getting to ground. Most of the ships that had made it to the surface were not transport vessels and their hasty landings had spread them hundreds of kilometers apart from each other across Kashyyyk's surface, making any attempt at collaboration impossible. They couldn't combine shields to hold off the orbital bombardment and soon every one of the downed ships was turned into a blackened crater that cut deep into the forest.

The depth and density of the forest, however, provided perfect cover for the Insectoids that had managed to escape their ships before they had been annihilated from orbit. Early reports had indicated significant numbers of Insectoids on the ground, with no way of knowing how many egg containers they had carried off their ships with them. If the sparse survivors weren't hunted down within the day, odds favored the Insectoids' chances of opening up a significant surface campaign without any reinforcements from orbit. All they had to do was escape notice and lay low while they waited for the small eggs to hatch and grow to maturity within a few weeks…then they would have their invasion force.

Aer-ki didn't intend to let that happen. He'd dispatched all but seven of his warships back to their previous assignments throughout the galaxy while he went down to the surface alone and began hunting down individual Insectoids within the forest. An hour later both the Corellians and the Wookiees had deployed ground forces to defend Kashyyyk's cities as well as to probe the landing sites for survivors.

Jyr had succeeded in tracking down and killing 23 Insectoids his first four hours on surface, most of which had consisted of him running from point to point through the dense vegetation. He had been moving towards another of the faint, yet unique lifesigns hidden amongst the mass of Kashyyyk's indigenous lifeforms when he sensed the fear and pain of a group of Corellian troops as they came under attack two kilometers to the east.

Moving as fast as he dared, Aer-ki ran through the cluttered forest, leaping over obstacles as needed in a mad rush towards the source of the commotion. He could feel several more soldiers die as he approached the site, and guessed that there were maybe a dozen or so left alive.

He could hear the faint sounds of blaster fire as he drew near the battle, and pulled more speed from his force-enhanced strides as he sensed a large lifeform amidst the soldiers. The essence of the creature was unfamiliar, but it had an odd tinge to it that reeked of Insectoid.

Jyr reached to his thigh and plucked his left lightsaber out of its indentation in his green and black body armor as he burst through the remaining underbrush into the midst of the battle.

Aer-ki lunged to his right, rolling across the dirt as he dodged a large, pointed leg that jutted down into the ground in front of him. He rolled to his feet, white blade emerging with a snap-hiss as he got his first look at the gigantic creature as it stabbed a Corellian through her armored chest with another of its thick, angular legs.

The spider-like monstrosity had vertical legs that emerged upwards from its back, then bent toward the ground from knobby 'knees' that glowed with Insectoid technology. One of the nubs fired at Jyr, who quickly redirected the blaster bolt up into the forest canopy as he quickly ran towards the creature's flank.

It's large, muscular tail rotated his direction, swinging a bone-like ball at its tip a meter above the ground. Jyr jumped over it with an agile back flip, then launched himself up onto the creature's flat back, deflecting another green bolt in the process. He used the force to keep his feet glued to the creature's back as it heaved to and fro trying to shake him off. He clawed his way toward the angular neck that reached up above the Insectoid's knees and ended with a pointy, snarling head that couldn't quite rotate back enough to snap at him with its half-meter long teeth.

Aer-ki blocked half a dozen frenzied shots from the nubs strapped to the creatures knees, one of which he destroyed with a redirected blast, before quickly inverting his blade and driving it deep into the creature's back, just below the neck.

Two more quick jabs brought the tank-like beast to the ground, inadvertently pinning a soldier underneath its bulk. Jyr stepped forward and lopped off the creature's head with four neat slices, insuring that it was truly dead, then jumped to the ground.

The awestruck soldiers tenderly walked forward as Jyr pried the left side of the carcass up off the trapped soldier using the force. The man had two crushed legs, but Aer-ki surmised they were salvageable, so long as he quickly got into a bacta tank. The man's armor had saved his bones from completely being ground to dust. He laid a hand on the soldier's helmeted head and dulled the pain as much as he could.

Aer-ki simultaneously contacted his remaining ships in orbit and had a shuttle dispatched to pick up the single wounded soldier. The other victims hadn't survived.

"A shuttle is on the way to pick this one up for medical treatment," Jyr said to the survivors as he stood up over the downed man. "You'd best go with him. There's nothing more for you to accomplish here. I'll take care of the rest of the Insectoids in the area."

Jyr turned to leave when one of the soldiers quickly asked him, "Who the hell are you? Are you Corellian?" he asked, referencing the full body armor that Jyr wore. It looked remarkably similar to theirs.

"No," he said simply as he turned to leave. "I'm Jedi."


	34. Chapter 34 Redemption

It started with an itch. A little pinprick of sensation at the base of Luke's artificial hand where the mechanical forearm met the flesh. He couldn't scratch inside his arm, which annoyed him to a certain extent, but this wasn't the first time he'd felt odd things in connection to his implant either. So, all things considered, he totted it up as a random quirk and ignored it, hoping it would pass within a day or two.

But it didn't. The itch became a pressure, then a mild pain. Luke began to wince at random moments from an icy spike inside his forearm, followed by an unsettling warmness around the same area. It wasn't until a few days later when Luke yelled out in pain during his afternoon meal did he accept the fact that he had a problem.

He pondered whether or not he should fly back to one of the Jedi temples and have their medics examine his arm…but the last thing he needed right now was to lose the use of his left hand, even temporarily, so he reluctantly decided to stick it out a few days longer and see what became of it, all the while probing the source of the pain with the force in an attempt to locate the problem and correct it himself.

Four days later, as the pain continued to blossom, the cause of the problem finally dawned upon him.

Luke locked himself into his quarters after the day's final lesson, giving him 16 hours before he'd be needed again. He hadn't discussed the matter with anyone, nor did anyone in the training centre even know of his infirmity. And given the absurdity of his solution, he didn't want anyone to be the wiser in case he was wrong.

Standing in the center of his room, Luke ignited his lightsaber's white blade with his left hand just beneath his right forearm. He knew that while he was going to have to be as precise as possible he was still going to lose a little flesh in the process.

_This is nuts_, Luke thought as his blade hovered centimeters beneath his outstretched forearm. Before he could dissuade himself, Luke dropped the blade down a few more centimeters then whipped it back up…right through his arm.

Luke held in his scream, biting his tongue in the process. He fell to his knees while his lightsaber dropped from his limp wrist, deactivating as it left his touch.

_This hurts way more than I remembered_. Luke glanced down at his right stub. _At least it's mostly cauterized_, he reasoned, trying to squint away the pain. _Focus!_

Luke tried to center himself and create a mote of stabilization within the maelstrom of pain. He pulled on the force to dull the sensation, but found even his most advanced pain suppression technique woefully inadequate. He spent the next two hours in that very spot, cursing himself for his stupidity, before he even tried to stand.

* * *

The next morning he attended his students from within a very baggy overrobe that hid his missing hand. Uncharacteristic as it was for him to wear such excessive clothing, no one went so far as to mention it to him directly. Luke willed his way through the day's lessons then retreated back to his quarters, where he collapsed on his bed.

He woke three hours later and unwrapped the thin cloth from around his stub, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the skin had regrown over the wound. He discarded the blood splattered rag and ran a tentative hand over the new, yet raw flesh. Satisfied that it wouldn't bleed into his blankets, he let his nagging exhaustion draw him off into a pain-muddled sleep.

The next morning he woke tired, hungry, and very cranky. Luke looked down at his stump, feeling the phantom limb sensations that he'd experienced after Vader had severed his hand the first time. Frustrated to no end, he reached for his overrobe, intent on heading down to get some real food real fast when his mind registered a belated fact. He pulled up his right stump again and did a double-take. He checked again and again, from all angles as a smile began to slowly creep onto his troubled face.

The stump of his forearm had grown half a centimeter.

_That's why I'm so hungry_, Luke figured. _I need the raw material for my arm to regenerate_. Thrilled beyond belief, he headed down to the lower levels and the mess hall, intent on stuffing his face for the first time in over a hundred years.

* * *

Day by day his arm slowly regenerated. Luke even found a measuring tool in the hangar bay and borrowed it so he could check his progress. He was averaging between half and three quarters of a centimeter per day, and was consuming enough food to fill a Hutt. Still, he kept the matter secret, even from the Camassi, who he'd grown extremely close to over the past few years. He wanted to wait and see if the regrowth would continue all the way.

A month later he had his tentative answer as the new flesh broadened out into what would become the base of his right hand. Luke could barely contain his glee, but wasn't going to count his nerfs before they were milked. He kept the fingers on his good hand crossed and waited out the sharp pains of regeneration with eager anticipation.

Two and a half months since he'd first felt that ominous itch, Luke held his fully regenerated left hand out in front of him, comparing it to his left. Both were identical in view, but his right was woefully weak in comparison. No wonder, considering the years of training his left hand had undergone. He figured it would take quite a lot of training before his new limb caught up with its twin…but time was of no concern to him. After nearly seven centuries spent with a mechanical hand, Luke Skywalker was whole again.

He returned to his training without incident, preferring to not make a grand announcement. He wasn't quite sure how it had actually happened, but figured it had something to do with the other physical changes he had undergone during the past year. Somehow it just seemed right to return to his training and instruction as if nothing had changed and wait until someone noticed.

If no one ever did then that was fine with Luke as well. This was a personal redemption, and he needn't make it into a public spectacle. He'd tell Jyr, of course, and hear what he had to say on the matter, but beyond that…he didn't care. He was so content to have his real hand back that he didn't even mind the dozens of times his hand's weakness would cause him to slip on the obstacle course. He would stand up in the pool of water, glance back at the starting pad that he would be returning to, and laugh out loud. He could slip and fall a thousand times and not care a bit…he had his hand back!

Shortly thereafter Luke received a summons from Jyr by means of a Shadow Alliance frigate arriving in system with instructions to take him back to Kashyyyk. Aer-ki had found something deep in the forest that he wanted Luke to see. It was the first time since the war with the Insectoids began that Jyr had called him away from the training facility, so he knew it had to be critically important.

Luke packed his duffle within an hour, turned his students' instruction over to the Camassi until he returned, and hopped a shuttle up to the frigate. As it jumped into hyperspace, he simply sat in his chair, flexing his fingers in and out in front of him, still in awe at what had happened.


	35. Chapter 35

Luke watched the amassed Corellian fleet from orbit as the Shadow Alliance frigate carried him through the debris ring that had resulted from the previous battle with the Insectoids. Even now, some of the smaller Corellian and Wookiee vessels were tugging several large fragments to stabilize their decaying orbits and prevent them from falling to the surface of Kashyyyk as meteors.

On the far side of the debris sat a handful of Shadow Alliance ships, clustered together like minnows alongside the massive Corellian star destroyers and the blocky Wookiee defense cruisers. Soon Luke's frigate eased into formation with them and a message from the first officer informed him that it was time to head to the shuttle bay.

Sitting comfortably in the upper deck of the Aurora-class shuttle, Luke gazed out over the thick Wookiee forest from orbit and spotting several small plumes of smoke that he guessed where the result of earlier debris hitting the surface. As the planet grew before his eyes he realized that the impact sites were ringed with additional damage that looked to be weapons' related.

He frowned for a moment in confusion, then belatedly realized that some of the Insectoid ships must have made it to ground and the fleet had obliterated them from orbit. Luke sighed. _A pity. That much damage to the forest will take at least a century to regrow. I hope there weren't any villages in the vicinity._

As the shuttle continued down Luke realized that they were headed not for a settlement, but for the deep forest. He wondered what in the blazes could Jyr have wanted him to see in the Shadowlands. It was one of the most dangerous parts of the multi-tiered forest…even some of the Wookiees wouldn't set foot on the ground in those areas.

Never the less, the shuttle descended through several small breaks in the trees and gradually worked its way down to the dark surface, so deep beneath the canopy that the daylight never reached ground.

Jyr was waiting for him at the foot of the shuttle's debarkation ramp.

"Hello, Ki," Luke said as he sensed several large lifeforms nearby. His hand unconsciously slipped down until his fingertips caressed his lightsaber.

"Luke," Jyr said with a simple nod. "This way."

The two Jedi fell into step with each other, almost as if the past year and a half that they'd been apart had never happened.

"Before you tell me what you've been up to," Luke said as they walked through the underbrush towards an encampment that he could sense ahead of them, "what do you know about regeneration?"

Aer-ki glanced at him as they continued to walk. "Most species have the ability to heal physical damage, some more so than others. Extreme examples are often referred to as regeneration…or anything that might be out of the ordinary for a particular species. As for Jedi, we can accelerate healing to the point that most humans would call it regeneration."

"How extreme have you known it to get...for a Jedi?" Luke asked.

Jyr raised an eyebrow. "You mean for a human Jedi?"

"Yes."

"Cuts and bruises are rather easy to heal. Mending broken bones without medical treatment is a bit trickier, but doable for most Knights and the occasional Padawan. More advanced cases have seen internal organs regrow, burned tissue heal within days, and stab wounds close over within hours. Some Jedi healers have been known to be able to trigger certain types of regeneration in others that couldn't manage the necessary skills themselves."

"What about you?" Luke asked, curious.

"I've never been seriously injured."

"Meaning what, exactly?" Luke asked, skeptical of what Jyr meant by 'serious.'

"Nothing life threatening," Aer-ki clarified. "I had a few broken bones in my early training, but I didn't overtly use the force to heal them."

"What do you mean by overtly?"

"There are two types of healing," Jyr explained in monotone, almost as if he were giving a lecture. "The first is subconscious healing. This is the way your body heals automatically, without you having to do anything from a conscious standpoint. The second method is conscious intervention, like say, when you focus the force on a cut in order to accelerate the healing of your skin, or you use it to begin to heal and erase an old, lingering scar."

"Does the force factor into subconscious healing?"

"It can," Jyr answered simply.

Luke reached out and stopped Jyr, turning his shoulder around so they faced each other. He pulled up his black sleeve on his right arm and held it up for his friend to see.

It took a moment for Jyr to catch on, then his eyes went wide. "You no longer have your mechanical hand?"

"No, I don't," Luke said, still pleased by the sound of it. "It regrew."

Jyr rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Did you initiate the regrowth?"

Luke shook his head 'no.'

"Interesting…and impressive. You've come a long way since I left you."

"Have you ever known something like this to happen? I couldn't find anything similar in the archives."

"I've known it was possible," Aer-ki clarified, "but I've never known it to happen to a human. There are, however, several nonhuman cases of limb regeneration among Jedi," he said as they began walking again.

"Wait a minute. What do you mean you've known it was possible?" Luke asked.

"I've felt it."

Luke was about to complain about his non-answer when Jyr's true meaning sunk in. "You're capable of regeneration too?"

Jyr half shrugged. "I won't know for sure until I lose something…and I don't plan on letting that happen."

"Neither did I…" Luke reminded him as memories of Cloud City came rushing back, "but life is full of surprises."

"Speaking of surprises," Aer-ki said as they walked into a manmade clearing in the underbrush that was full of excavation equipment and personnel, "I bumped into one while I was tracking an Insectoid through the forest."

"So they did make it to the surface?" Luke asked. He hadn't received any official information on the attack.

"They did, but I'm confident that we got them all," he said, motioning to certain personnel as they walked through the large camp.

Luke noted several armed guards, both Shadow Alliance and Wookiee, spread throughout the camp. Normally Luke would have found that odd, given their large numbers, but the fact that they were sitting in the middle of the Shadowlands made Luke glad for the extra protection.

"One of the Insectoid warriors ran straight into this, bounced off the bulkhead, and rebounded straight into my lightsaber," Jyr said as they rounded the corner of a large, square camp tent.

A holographic image of a nonhuman stood atop a pedestal and blinked two wide-set eyes in their direction.

Jyr pointed at the hologram and the black obelisk beside it. "Apparently, it's called…"

"…a Star Map," Luke finished for him.


	36. Chapter 36

Jyr raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How did you know that?"

Luke crossed his arms over his chest, still staring at the hologram. "One of the Jedi Council members is Rakatan. We've had some very long talks on the subject of his people's history, for which he unnecessarily carries a guilty conscious. He told me of several Star Maps that held the location to a device known as a Star Forge that was destroyed by a Jedi named Revan long ago."

Jyr nodded. "The Jedi archives mention Revan and the destruction of the Star Forge, but little else. This Star Map was never mentioned. Did you know it was here?"

Luke shook his head. "No, nor do I know where the others are. I only recognized this for what it was because I recognized the hologram as Rakatan."

"Did this Jedi mention anything else about the Star Map?"

"His name is Isi Nes, and no he didn't. However, he did inform me that his people once used the dark side of the force and interfaced it with their technology," Luke said, gesturing at the Rakatan construct before him, "and I can feel a trace of it now."

"Interesting…I suppose they wouldn't want to make it public knowledge after all they went through to hide it."

Luke frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Watch…"Jyr said as he walked up to the hologram. "What is the purpose of this facility?"

The hologram reoriented its line of sight on Jyr. "This installation was originally built to monitor agricultural reformation on a planet-wide scale, however, a malfunction in installation regulatory systems may have led to unanticipated super-growth of indigenous vegetation, malfunction occurred 24 years after last Builder communication…"

"What is the secondary purpose of this facility?" Jyr said, interrupting his spiel.

The hologram blinked. "That information is restricted to level red security access. Please enter the proper identification codes."

"Code phrase," Jyr said without a hint of sarcasm, "Shut up and do what you're told."

Luke turned his head and stared at his friend.

"Level red security access granted," the hologram noted.

Jyr turned to Luke and whispered, "I had my techs hack into the system."

"Auxiliary purpose of this facility is to conceal the Attonyyk structure located beneath this monitoring station, completing the galaxy-wide eradication of any trace of its original masters."

"What?" Luke asked.

Jyr held up a finger. "Why was the structure hidden and not destroyed like the rest?"

"Composite construction of Attonyyk structure was deemed too labor-intensive to dismantle and any orbital bombardment would, at best, only destroy the surface of the structure. Repurposing this world while masking the presence of said structure proved more economical and provided a quick means of erasing any obvious evidence of the Attonyyks' prior existence."

"Who were the Attonyyks?" Jyr asked, repeating questions that he'd asked days earlier.

"The Attonyyks were the primary enemy of the builders during their conquest of this galaxy. They, ultimately, proved unworthy to exist and were overwhelmed by the might of the builders."

Jyr turned to Luke. "Note the phrase _this galaxy_."

Luke's jaw dropped when he caught the subtlety. "The Rakatan came from outside this galaxy?!"

"I can't say for sure," Jyr cautioned, "but the phrasing is suggestive." He turned back to the hologram. "Display locations of all builder facilities at the time of the Star Forge's construction."

The black obelisk off to the side cracked open and the Star Map spun into existence in front of them. A swath of tiny lights marked Rakatan worlds, most of which were in what was now the unknown regions, but many were spread throughout all parts of the galaxy, including one blinking light marking the location of Kashyyyk.

"Now, display all current facilities," Jyr said.

The swath of lights disappeared…save for six.

"The other Star Maps?" Luke guessed.

Jyr addressed the hologram. "How many Star Maps were created?"

"Five Star Maps were created, using the technology of the Star Forge itself, to honor the glory of the builders' ultimate creation."

"What is the sixth location indicated on the map?" Jyr asked.

"The additional installation is that of Nathon, the second world colonized by the builders in order to access the rare elements in the planet's lava flows, many of which were utilized in the construction of the Star Forge."

"Wait," Luke interrupted. "How does it know those facilities are still intact?"

Jyr addressed the hologram. "Verify current location data for Nathon."

"Working…superluminal network handshake confirmed. Nathon beacon responding. Updating drift calculations. Nathon current status: online, position confirmed."

Luke felt his jaw drop even lower.

"Impressive," Jyr commented, "but that's not the end of it." He was about to say something else to the hologram, but hesitated and glanced back at Luke. "Your Rakatan Jedi isn't from this world, I take it?"

"No," Luke said simply.

Jyr nodded. "I thought not. Display schematic of the Star Forge."

The hologram of the galaxy diminished as a wire diagram of the Star Forge appeared.

"Show size comparison against a kilometer-wide cube."

A small box appeared alongside the Star Forge.

Luke's jaw dropped even further. "It's almost the size of a Death Star."

"A what?" Jyr asked.

Luke looked at him as if he was crazy, then belatedly remembered that Palpatine's Empire was well before his time. "A planet-killing space station built by the Empire long before you were born."

Jyr frowned. "I've heard it mentioned before, but I always thought the stories of it had been exaggerated. It would take an unbelievable amount of power to destroy a planet."

Luke nodded grimly. "It does, and the Empire built two of them. Both were destroyed by the Rebel Alliance shortly after they were built."

"How?" Jyr asked. "If you take the time to build something that massive you're going to make sure it's nearly impregnable."

Luke smiled, remembering back. "All it took was a single design flaw and a couple of proton torpedoes to take out the first. The second was a bit more complicated." He saw Jyr's head tip and eyebrow raise in a disbelieving gesture. "I'm serious. I'm the one that launched the torpedoes down a thermal exhaust shaft. The chain reaction destroyed the entire station."

"Incompetent morons," Jyr muttered. "And the second?"

"It was designed with a way to kill it, in order to draw the Alliance fleet into the open where they could be destroyed once and for all. Things didn't go as planned for the Empire, and they lost both their Death Star and their Sith Lord on the same day."

"Sith?" Jyr asked, suddenly more interested.

Luke frowned. "You didn't know?"

"Bits and pieces. Remember, my copy of the archives comes from before the Jedi purge. I didn't know when Vader actually died."

Luke cleared his throat. "Actually, I was referring to Darth Sidious…or the Emperor, as he was commonly known."

Jyr looked shocked. "Palpatine was Sith?"

"Yes, and it was his plan that the second Death Star be used as a trap for the Alliance. Vader killed him there, but died from the wounds the Emperor inflicted on him in the process."

"The galactic consensus says you killed the Emperor and Vader."

Luke shook his head adamantly. "No, Vader redeemed himself and saved me in the process, as well as fulfilling the prophecy of the chosen one."

Jyr frowned, and Luke could feel his emotions harden. "I don't think there can be any redemption for what Vader did. One doesn't switch from lightside to darkside and back again."

Luke looked straight at him. "You don't believe in redemption, do you?"

"I don't see how one who is truly lightside can fall in the first place."

"Many have," Luke countered, "You've read as much in the archives."

"Were they truly lightside, or merely force users passing off as Jedi to begin with?"

Luke opened his mouth to respond, then clamped it shut as his experiences over the past few years silenced his previously held beliefs. "The darkside can cloud one's mind to the point where you don't realize what you are doing."

"True, but then are you really darkside, or just a victim of it?" Jyr asked with no emotion present in his voice.

Luke considered that, not quite catching Jyr's meaning. "Explain."

"Can someone who is pure lightside ever knowingly go darkside?"

"Light and dark are incompatible," Luke responded, beginning to see Jyr's angle. "How then could two opposites coexist…without a great deal of internal conflict," Luke finished, finally realizing what his father must have gone through. "That bastard."

"Who?" Jyr asked, wondering where Luke's thoughts were taking him.

"Sidious," Skywalker answered. "He must have seriously screwed with his mind in order for Anakin to do what he did."

Jyr answered him with a trace of anger in his voice. "The darkside is not to be trifled with. It can do things the lightside can't, and vice versa. But in the end, I still believe that a true Jedi could never turn to the darkside. Vader may have been strong with the force, but he wasn't inherently lightside. If he were, he would have subconsciously rejected the darkside and fought his way free of its influence rather than being consumed by it."

"I don't suppose you believe the story of Revan's redemption either," Luke added, not sure if he agreed with his friend or not.

Aer-ki's eyes narrowed. "Not a chance."

Luke turned hisgaze away from Jyr and back to the Star Map. "I'm not comfortable with the idea that redemption is impossible."

"I never said it was impossible," Jyr amended, "but to go that far to the darkside requires one to want to do so. And in order to do that, one's basic essence can't be lightside."

"My father came back…and I could sense the conflict within him. A part of him was lightside, always."

Jyr stiffened. "If what you say is true, then it is beyond my understanding." The younger Jedi directed his attention back to the Star Map as well. "Display size comparison to Attonyyk facility beneath us."

A large chunk of angular mass appeared next to the Star Forge, approximately half its size.

Still a bit unsettled by their previous conversation, Luke shook his head in disbelief. "How could they bury something that big?"

"Most of the facility was underground to begin with," Jyr explained, "all they did was reform the landscape over top of it. Explain the seal."

The hologram on the pedestal gestured toward the ground behind him. "One route of entry into the structure remains, but requires twelve masters of the potentium to unlock the seal barring access into the forbidden depths. Entry, no matter what the cause, is strictly forbidden without the mandate of the grand council, and is punishable by the slowest, most torturous death imaginable."

"That's why I called for you, Luke. I can only operate nine of the locks. I need your help to get all twelve."

"Sure thing…you planning on turning the facility into a Shadow Alliance base?"

"At the least," Jyr said as he turned away from the Star Map. He led Luke around to the back of the Rakatan monitoring station, to the deep pit that had been dug into the forest floor in order to reveal an entrance that had been covered over by years of growth and decay. Another much larger dig site was visible to the west.

"What were you trying to do over there?" Luke asked.

"We tried to bypass the lock…unsuccessfully. The material that the Attonyyk structure is made of absorbs large amounts of energy, and shows little damage even from a lightsaber. It would take months to cut our way in even with the most advanced equipment."

"Show me this material," Luke insisted.

Jyr had them lowered down the artificial chasm, glow rods in hand, until they reached the small pool of water that covered the bottom of the pit. He flicked the switch on the nearby pump controls and the seepage water quickly disappeared. Aer-ki passed his glow rod over a rough patch of stone beneath their feet that showed minor damage from, among other things, a lightsaber blade.

"You've seen this before?" Jyr asked, sensing a flicker in Luke's emotions.

"Twice," Luke confirmed. "Once in the unknown regions, and then later on Chazwa, in what they called the Hijarna fortress, after a friend of mine noticed a similarity."

Jyr frowned. "That's odd. The hologram said this was the last trace of the Attonyyks."

"The structures were little more than crumbling rock," Luke added. "The interiors had to be refurbished with conventional technology. I assume you're hoping that the Rakatans didn't entirely loot this place."

"I don't know," Jyr answered bluntly. "But this material is far more advanced than anything my people can build. If even a fragment of their tech survived, it could advance ours considerably," he said, abandoning the scarred surface of the subterranean structure and mounting the ascent platform.

When they reached the top Jyr took Luke down into the upper regions of the Rakatan facility and led him through its own subsurface corridors until they approached a large, blank wall with a single raised circle, two meters wide.

Jyr pulled out his lightsaber and thrust it forward. It impacted with a force field a couple centimeters from the door. "Can't cut our way through here either. The emitters are on the other side and the field passes through the bulkheads as well. Luke glanced to his left and saw a large hole in the adjoining wall where Jyr had tried to cut around the force field.

"Ok," Luke agreed, "where are the locks?"

"Reach into the door with the force and you'll feel them, but be warned, they'll give you a bit of a headache when you try and operate them. The tech was designed for the use of the darkside, and it resists the lightside to a certain degree. If you can get three of them I'll get the rest. Four would be preferable."

"I'll give it a go," Luke said, stretching out beyond the force field and sensing the imbedded nubs of technology within the door. He washed the force over one and felt it react. He pushed on a weak spot and felt a grating vibration ripple back to him. It felt like grinding his teeth together, or scraping his fingernails over smooth rock…but he didn't relent. Soon the nub gave in and altered beneath his force pressure.

He reached out for the next one while maintaining his pressure on the first. He found it nearly impossible to manage both, and released his connection.

"It's the darkside sensitivity of the circuits," Jyr explained. "You have to forcibly restructure the mechanism before you apply pressure."

"How?" Luke asked. He'd never tried anything remotely like this before.

"Trial and error," Jyr said, raising a hand toward the door. "Watch."

He quickly made a connection with a node, bathing it in the force and refocusing its 'feel'. He then applied pressure and Luke felt it lock into place. Jyr released his connection and Luke felt it return to its previous state. "Try again."

Luke blew out a breath and closed his eyes. "He reached for a node and tried to rework the feel of it. At first he tried to alter it in any way he could, then gradually drove the angles of attack that he discovered closer and closer to where they needed to be. When he had progressed to what he felt was far enough, he applied pressure and found the node lock into place with much greater ease.

He reached out for the second node and, while maintaining both his hold on the 'essence' of the first as well as the necessary pressure, he sought to reconfigure the second. While he did, he felt Jyr begin his attempts on the others. Luke numbed himself to Aer-ki's actions and focused specifically on his assigned tasks. He cracked the second node within a few minutes…while the third required considerably more time.

When he finally succeeded, and with Jyr holding the other nine in place, the locking mechanism within the door unsealed and the force field dropped in a dim flash. Luke released the straining effort and took in a deep, rejuvenating breath as the thick door rolled to the side along the wall, revealing a bright interior.


	37. Chapter 37

At the noise of the opening door, a group of techs and two armed Wookiees scurried down the steps behind them.

"At last," one of the human techs muttered as she looked through the open doorway into the small, glowing alcove beyond.

Jyr glanced to the Wookiees. "Stay with the techs a reasonable distance behind us…and _don't_ let them wander off."

Hhkarak rumbled his understanding and hefted his bowcaster in preparation. Jormukkar beside him did likewise.

Jyr turned and swept past Luke, entering the alcove without a second thought. The interior was constructed of the same material as the Rakatan outpost with a wide, circular vertical shaft dropping from the center of the floor.

Luke tipped his head over the edge of the shaft and looked down. Three ladders scaled the side of the shaft as it dropped some twenty meters below into a dim, reddish/black hallway or room below. Sensing the immediate vicinity below them was clear, Luke swung out over the nearest ladder and began to climb down.

A second later Jyr's falling body flashed by Luke in a blur and landed in a crouch on the floor below. _Right_, Luke said, mentally chastising himself as he let go of the ladder and dropped.

He landed in the center of a long hallway that stretched at least ten meters wide, and extended out to his right and left as far as he could see into the darkness beyond. The only light provided came from the overhead shaft and the well lit alcove above.

Hhkarak growled/barked from overhead. "We're clear," Jyr said loudly so his voice would carry back up the shaft. "Send them down."

The human techs, five in all, began to descend the ladders, struggling with the weight of their equipment packs. Hhkarak reached out and grabbed one on the way down to keep him from falling backwards, and held on long enough to let the old man steady himself on the rungs. The Wookiees reached the bottom of the shaft first, retaining one ladder exclusively for themselves, and helped the humans' transition off the truncated steps that ended a half meter short of the floor.

Seeing the darkness around them, the techs immediately reached into their packs and brandished a glow rod for each of themselves, and passed an additional two to the Wookiees. Before they could offer any to the Jedi, Luke brandished his lightsaber and flooded the hallway with a yellow light, akin to the color of the glow rods.

Jyr added his blue a moment later and the far end of the hall to their right became dimly visible as the wide 'tunnel' angled at a joint and cut off further view. The left view, however, extended out into the dark distance beyond, with no end in sight.

"Strap a glow rod to one of the ladders," Jyr ordered.

The young woman pulled another from her pack along with some tape-like adhesive and securely attached the end of the yellow/orange rod to one of the vertical bars.

Out of curiosity, Jyr's blade flashed white and the Jedi dipped the tip into the floor. It resisted the blade, just as the material uncovered at the bottom of the dig site had.

Luke glanced at the floor, and then Jyr. "I can see why destroying this place would have taken some effort."

"Indeed," Jyr said, returning his blade to the safer blue stun-blade. He toed the very shallow indentation his blade had caused with his nimble black boot, feeling almost nothing.

Luke glanced at their two options…left or right. "Which way?"

Without a word Jyr began to walk, albeit very slowly so the techs could keep up, to the right and the angle in the hallway beyond. Blue blade in front, he led the small expedition deep into the shadows while the small glow rod attached to the ladder diminished behind them.

Before they reached the bend an opening appeared to their left, equal in size to the dimension of the hallway. As they walked closer, they discovered it was a T-junction that led to another impossibly long corridor. On this one, however, there was a smaller door, still some three meters high, imbedded into the new hallway's left wall.

A meter-wide flat bubble sat next to the door on the wall, which the techs reacted to instantly, brandishing a handheld computer and interface cables.

"Never mind that," Jyr said as he lifted a hand toward the giant door. With a hefty groan, the triangular door slid upward, disappearing past its peak into the wall above where it locked in place with a mighty jolt.

"Thanks," the old tech said before holding up his glow rod and spilling its light into the room beyond. With the other four techs cowering behind their elder, they huddle/walked into the room behind Jormukkar, who stepped out in front of them to lead the way. Luke was a half step behind the towering Wookiee.

Jyr glanced down the long hallway as everyone else entered the newly opened chamber. Hhkarak growled a question back at him.

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right," Jyr said casually.

The Wookiee gripped his bowcaster with both hands and sniffed at the air.

"Go ahead," Jyr insisted, "I'll bring up the rear."

With one final glance back, Hhkarak trudged after the others. Standing alone in the dark hall Jyr reached out and touched the cold stone with his bare palm. Having foregone his traditional armor, the agile Jedi wore nothing but a formfitting black garment that stretched whisper silent with his every move. A thin belt separated shirt from pants and provided an anchor point for his pair of lightsabers and a number of tiny pouches that carried his comlink and other tiny devices.

On a hunch he pulled out his comlink and got nothing but static in reply. The odd, stone-like material must have been blocking the signal. He shut the hissing mic off and returned it to his belt when another weird feeling brushed his consciousness, almost as if…

On impulse he shut off his lightsaber and listened, trying to ignore the noises from his team as they moved further inside the large chamber. He listened down the hall, trying to identify whatever it was that had caught his attention. He listened and listened for several seconds, holding his breath to clear his hearing even further.

_Click, clack, click, click, clack_…His eyes opened suddenly with understanding. His lightsaber sprung to life and he jumped inside the room with the others.

"What is it?" Luke asked quickly.

With a large rumble, Jyr brought the door down behind them and sealed the room with a loud and heavy thud as the stone-like door fell into place. "Check for other entrances…hurry!"

Knowing better than to ask again, Luke darted off across the room, following the left wall. He moved passed row after row of objects on the ground but ignored them, his eyes only interested on the uninterrupted wall beside him. On the opposite side of the room Jyr did likewise, and they both noted with concern that their glowing blades were getting farther away from each other.

Luke reached a shallow corner that redirected the wall some thirty degrees back towards the center. He guessed, based on Jyr's moving blade off to his right, that the chamber was geometrical in shape, maybe hexagonal or octagonal, and that they would meet up on the far side. Stepping around what looked like a control panel, Luke moved away from the wall, then angled back towards it before stopping in his tracks.

"I have an open door!" he yelled back in the direction of the tiny glow rods and Jyr's now white blade.

A thud resonated through the room, quickly followed by Jyr's voice. "Close it!"

"Ok," Luke said tentatively as he reached out through the force. The door was unbelievably massive, and it was locked in place by some mechanism in the wall off to his right. Without power Luke was going to have to forcefully unpin the mechanism holding up the door. He searched with his senses for the range of movement that the pin was capable of making when he heard noises closing on his position.

Hurrying as much as he could, he probed the entirety of the concealed pin and finally found the track that it moved on. He pushed with all the pressure he could remotely muster, and felt the mechanisms grind through positions they were never designed to travel unpowered. The door released and fell as something scurried underneath.

Luke brought his blue blade up in front of him defensively as a second something tried to cross below the falling door and was crushed underneath its massive weight. Before Luke knew what was happening, a red blaster bolt fired at him from three meters away.

He deflected the blast upward and quickly switched his blade to searing white before jabbing forward into what he thought was a droid. His blade connected with one of several spider-like legs…and bounced off.

Stunned, Luke quickly came back on guard and deflected another blaster bolt, this time back into the droid, whose armor simply absorbed the blast. It scurried forward on its five massive legs and jabbed another appendage at Luke, who rolled clear of it to his left…and into an unseen object, banging his head in the process.

He got to his feet just as the droid scurried toward him, firing as it came. Luke heard a crackle of force lightning and realized that Jyr must have been fighting another droid, or droids, on the other side of the room…but it also gave him an idea as his mind flashed back to the time he spent digging through the Jedi archives.

Luke jumped clear of the droid and shook his free hand, flinging it back and forth, trying to remember how to use this particular power. It had been over a year since he'd attempted it. He blocked another blaster shot in the process, then broke through the stagnant barriers within his flesh and loosed a flow of energy from the palm of his hand at the droid.

The white, almost lightning lept forward and sizzled as it impacted the droid's metallic body, passing through its armor and frying internal circuits similar to the way an ion blast disabled computer systems.

The droid stopped in its tracks.

Not sure how successful he was, Luke cautiously walked up to the droid and touched his blade to its armor plating. _One, two, three_, Luke counted to himself, _four, five, six, seven, eight_… The white blade slide through the droid's armor and cut through its internal circuits as if they weren't even there. Luke pivoted the blade around through the tiny hole, gutting the droid as best he could.

The droid lurched and Luke quickly withdrew his blade into a defensive position, but the droid didn't move again. It froze in place and held static, with a tiny tendril of smoke floating up through the thumb-sized hole Luke had cut into its armor.

Across the room he could hear Jyr still fighting what sounded like several droids…but to his horror he heard one of the techs cry out in pain and the Wookiees open fire with their bowcasters back at their original entrance. Luke left his disabled droid where it was and sprinted across the dark, cluttered chamber.


	38. Chapter 38

Luke stretched out his senses, trying to anticipate where the hidden objects were lying in the dark chamber so he wouldn't trip over them as he sprinted back to the techs who were under attack by the droid or droids that had slipped past him and Jyr. He rushed towards them, his effervescent blade bobbing in front of him while he searched for the origin of the attack. He backtracked another blaster shot as it struck one of the Wookiees, dropping the massive warrior to his knees. Luke reached out for the dimly visible droid with the force as he hurdled another thick, low lying object on the floor.

The metallic spider was suddenly pulled up off the floor and thrown into the nearby wall with a resulting clank/thud upon impact, however the droid didn't slink to the ground as one would expect. Instead, Luke pulled it back several meters from the wall and threw it against the impossibly hard surface again, and again, and again.

Luke finally reached the group as he continued to thrash the droid against the wall to no avail. The armor plating on the droid seemed to be made of the same material as the stubborn walls, and it was unwilling to break or even dent. Glancing once at Hhkarak and his bloody chest, then at the dead body of one of the techs, Luke felt his ire rise.

He dropped the droid to the ground then hit it with another cascade of energy that froze it dead in its tracks. He punctured its armor with a long hold of his blade against the tough battle plates and gutted it like the other after his lightsaber finally cut through. Once finished, he channeled his aggression into a determination to help his companions and sought out the injured Wookiee. Jyr continued to fight off in the distance, but Luke could feel him gaining the upper hand and decided to let him finish the droids on his own.

With a constant vigil set on the immediate vicinity and the sealed door behind them, Luke extended a hand to the Wookiee's bloody bandoleer and slipped his fingers beneath it. Hhkarak howled in pain but didn't allow himself to flinch from the Jedi's touch.

Luke slowed the massive bleeding and numbed the searing pain as much as he could. He accelerated Hhkarak's natural healing abilities while using the force to try and close his wound. After a few long minutes, in which he heard and felt Jyr finish off the other droids and seal the chamber's remaining open door, the round, charred puncture wound had shrank down to a pinprick on the surface, but interior damage still remained…damage that Luke couldn't heal without putting the Wookiee into a coma-like trance.

A quick check of the Wookiee's emotions suggested that he wasn't in a compatible mood at present. Luke released his connection and retracted his hand.

The female tech had pulled the dead man's head into her lap and was talking to him as if he was wounded, but still alive. Luke gently reached for her hands and forced her to look into his eyes. "He's gone…I'm sorry, but we need you to focus on your skills. We're still in danger and fighting in the dark."

The woman sniffed, trying to contain her tears and reluctantly let her fellow tech's body slip to the floor. "We have a small generator. I can hook up a flood light."

Another tech, a young man barely past puberty, walked over to the pair as Luke helped the tech to her feet. "We may be able to power the room's own lights, if we can find an interface for the power cables…we brought generic converters."

"Flood light first," Luke suggested, "then we can see what equipment there is lying around to work with."

Jormukkar, meanwhile, walked over to the downed droid and pumped two shots from his bowcaster into it before snarling one of the harshest lines of invective that Luke had heard in a century. When he finished, he pulled apart the droid leg by leg, which told Luke that the joints weren't made of the same material as the outer skin. He'd have to remember that the next time he encountered a live one.

Appalled as he was by what had just happened, the elder tech gingerly nudged past the towering Wookiee and began examining the disconnected pieces. He continued the Wookiee's work, pulling apart the interior components for additional study as Jyr walked out of the shadows, his lightsaber unlit.

"Are we clear?" Luke asked.

Jyr nodded. "There was a fourth door that the droids came through. It's closed now, and I don't think they can open it without power."

Luke flinched, closing his eyes against the immensely bright floodlight as it shot towards the high ceiling. He closed down his lightsaber and reattached it to his belt. "What now?" he asked, looking around at the cluttered room. Broken technology laid scattered everywhere.

"We explore the room," he said simply.

Luke nodded his agreement and took up the watch on two of the techs while Jyr bent over and rifled through some of the nearby debris. Hhkarak pulled himself over to the floodlight and sat next to it, intent on guarding their only real source of light. Jormukkar traveled with the last tech as he headed off along the far right wall towards the shadows that the massive floodlight couldn't dismiss. The room was so large that it remained only half lit. The other half, where the droids had entered, remained eerily dark.

After an hour and a half, a salvageable dataport and console had been repaired and interfaced with their handheld computers. They were unable to power any of the room's utilities, but they did have a data connection to the structure's main computer…which amazingly still had power of its own, sequestered in some far off section of the facility.

Luke considered that odd. After several millennia he would have expected the entire facility to be as lifeless as the chamber they were currently holed up in, but when they pulled up a schematic of the impossibly large subsurface structure, they quickly found that only the upper regions were without power. Only three levels below had the power conduits been severed. Everything above that, including their current location, remained dark…figuratively and literally.

"Lord Jyr," the female tech said into the silence, "a datafile keeps trying to override my commands, no matter what I do. I can't make any headway around it."

"What file is it?" Jyr asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. He could sense her fragile nerves and subtly tried to sooth them.

"I thought it was some type of counter-intrusion software at first, but it's not breaking my connection to their systems, just blocking entry while asking to be activated."

"Asking?" Luke added as he joined the conversation around a low conical terminal.

"There's an activation prompt on the datafile," she said, mystified. "What do you want me to do?"

"There's no way around it?" Jyr asked, just to be sure.

"Not that I can find."

Jyr said nothing for a moment, then a strange look crossed over his face. "Try it and see what happens."

The tech didn't look pleased, but she didn't complain either. She tapped the icon on her display screen and suddenly the built-in holoprojector sprouted the image of a dragon. It stood on four low legs resplendent with razor-sharp claws and a thin, tapering tail. Its head was as angular as the doorway, with two raised eye bumps on top. The hologram bared its teeth and looked directly at the user.

"I record this message," it said in _basic_, "for whomever may find this city. Our enemy means to bury us alive, for they do not have the strength to tear through our walls by brute force alone, nor can they fight their way past the upper levels. We however, entombed within our great city, are gradually starving to death. Our supplies have run low these past four years, and we have not the capability to produce more within the confines of the capitol."

The Dragon hissed, long and slow. "A regrettable lapse on the part of the designers, but it is as it is. We have tried and failed to build a bio-synthesis facility from scratch, and our attempts to tunnel up to the surface have met with nothing less than a Rakatan assault force waiting for us. They seem to know where and when we will tunnel out, and have thwarted any attempts at escape."

"Our hangar bays have been covered over by kilometers of dirt, so we don't even have the option of flying out to meet our deaths at the hands of their orbital fleet. We have consigned ourselves to one last assault on the surface rather than sit by and die a long and slow death, deprived of nourishment. We are almost ready to break through to the surface, where we will fight to our eventual deaths."

"However, we will not let the mongrels have our great city for themselves. We may not have the means to sustain our bodies, but our factories have ample raw materials gathered from the planet's crust to build and sustain our droid security forces. We have assembled an army to aid our fight to the surface, but a sizeable force is being left behind to close the new tunnel and slaughter any of the fools who attempt entry into the city."

"If any of our brethren have managed to survive elsewhere in the galaxy and it is you who are hearing this message…the vault may still be intact. We have taken all precautions to guard against intruders, but these vermin have powers beyond our understanding. If they have discerned the secrets hidden within then I have no doubt they will stop at nothing until this city is ground unto dust. However, since they are content to bury us beneath the surface, I believe they do not know of the lower levels, and with any luck, the vault will remain hidden and safe until an ally returns to open it."

"If it is to an ally I speak, beware, for our defenses will not lay down for you. We cannot risk Rakatan duplicity. The lower levels are well guarded, and only the key of Anmar or the jewel of Netharis will persuade them to let you pass. If you do not possess these heirlooms turn back and return to the surface immediately, for you are in great peril."

"If this should be the day of our last breath then know this…we would not submit to the invaders. We defied them to the last."

The hologram deactivated and computer access was restored.


	39. Chapter 39

Luke blew out a short, dismayed breath. "I had no idea."

"I don't think anyone does," Jyr commented. "The Rakatan did well to erase all evidence of their existence."

"Not all," Luke added.

Jyr raised an eyebrow. "Download a full schematic, if possible," he said to the female tech.

"No problem," she said, furiously tapping keys on her handheld. A moment later the pyramidal facility appeared where the holo of the dragon had just disappeared. The tech frowned. "I can't get any detail below level 1578…"

"Secured?" Jyr guessed.

"No…I'm not getting a code prompt. I think they were omitted."

"Is there…" Jyr began to ask when a pounding thud reverberated from the far wall as one of the doors slitted open half a meter. "Back to the door," he yelled, jolting upright and reaching out to a piece of debris with the force. "Luke, get them back to the surface," he said, flinging his arm and the console in the direction of the partially open door.

The console hit the ground a dozen meters short and slid forward, stopping as it hit the open crack. Another piece of junk followed two seconds later, then another, and another, even as the door ratcheted up another half meter.

The techs ran back to their point of entry, half tripping over the cluttered floor as they grabbed their packs and glow rods. The Wookiees roared in frustration and anticipation of battle while Luke herded the group back the way they came. When they were all in position, he force-gripped the door and began to slowly push it up, even as a loud crash sounded behind them.

Jormukkar dropped to the ground and fired several bolts beneath the door, but they merely impacted the far wall. The droids had repositioned themselves.

Luke felt the door lock in place overhead. He ignited his lightsaber and jumped outside. "Let's move!"

Jyr felt Luke's presence move off down the corridor, but he didn't have the luxury of visually confirming his party's departure. Droids were spilling under the half-raised door and breaking through his improvised blockade, but that wasn't the worst of it. Two large mechanical hands were visible under the door, raising it slowly upward to reveal a huge bipedal droid.

Before it could get the door fully raised, Jyr raised his left hand and unleashed a torrent of force lightning at all the droids in the opening and the legs of the ubber-droid.

He didn't relent, and pumped wave after wave of energy into the droids, lighting the chamber more brightly than the flood light was capable of doing. The bluish-white pulsating light interfered with Aer-ki's vision, but he could still feel the droids before him. He could feel bits and pieces of his electrical onslaught pass through their impossibly tough armor and fry internal circuits one by one. He could also feel the internal pathways redirect around the damaged areas and return the droids to functionality.

Finally he relented. The blinding aura began to fade from his overwhelmed eyes even as one of the leading droids jerked a leg forward…then awkwardly retracted it back again. Behind the frozen droids, more scurried about. Some went off elsewhere, probably chasing Luke and his group, but many waited in place while a few more began to wedge their way between their disabled brethren.

The massive droid suddenly reactivated and the door lurched upward and locked into place. Two massive, shoulder-mounted weapons fired at Jyr the moment they were clear of the door.

The Jedi dashed sideways, dodging the twin ion blasts, and returned the favor with the force version of an ion cannon…known simply in the archives as 'destroy droid.' Not a very good name, as far as Jyr was concerned, but it was an apt description.

However, with this frustrating armor, it was more like 'stun droid,' as only a portion of the blinding white blast penetrated the battle plates, which were even thicker on the large droid. It froze in place for about ten seconds before walking forward and raising a forearm mounted blaster in Jyr's direction.

In those ten seconds of impunity, Jyr picked up two of the spider-like droids and threw them back into their brethren…then _pushed_ them further, plowing over some twenty more droids. With them momentarily off balance, he turned around and lifted the largest piece of debris he could find and flung it at the massive droid just as it came back to life and targeted him.

The desk-sized control console hit the droid's torso and knocked it back into the corridor, where it crushed two spider droids as it fell onto its back.

Jyr blocked a blaster bolt with his lightsaber then reached out and dismembered the attacking droid, pulling out all seven of its limbs with satisfying 'pops' accompanying each joint break. The droid dropped to the ground, but still fired at Jyr from its central blaster mount.

The seven limbs floated up off the ground and shot backward as projectiles, impacting any droid in site. Aer-ki darted off to the right and ran back to their entry point into the chamber. He passed through the door that Luke had opened and blasted a force wave down the left wing of the corridor, knocking two pursuing droids back twenty meters.

Jyr ran to the right and flung another droid ahead of him up over his head and back towards the others. He held his ignited lightsaber in his right hand as he ran, just in case he needed to deflect another bolt. He didn't feel any more droids ahead of him, but non-biologicals were notoriously difficult to sense at a distance.

Running in a blur of motion, Jyr rounded the corner into the massive outer 'tunnel' and saw the techs nearing the ladder far ahead of him. He didn't slow as he turned the corner, instead he arced the turn and lept up sideways on the far wall, running a few steps laterally until he bled off enough centrifugal force for him to straighten out and return his lengthy strides to the smooth, dull floor.

He caught up to Luke as the last of the techs disappeared up the ladder. His fellow Jedi launched a mass of energy from his palm that passed within a meter of Jyr and impacted a droid turning the corner behind him. It froze in place, one leg extending out in front of it yet not quite touching the floor in a paused step.

Jyr reached the opening and jumped straight up, grabbing the edge of the circular opening with his fingertips and pulling himself up into the alcove, completely bypassing the ladder.

Luke jumped halfway up then grabbed the ladder and climbed the rest of the way to the top. There the two Jedi waited for the droids to cluster around the base of the ladder. They didn't attempt to climb up which, based on their design, Luke didn't think they were physically capable of doing.

He jerked back from the opening as a blaster bolt sliced past his face and scarred the top of the alcove. Both Jedi retreated back to the circular door with the force lock and stood in the opening, leaning against opposite sides. They kept an eye on the ladder while glancing to the swarms of Alliance personnel and Wookiees that had flooded into the room.

"Post sentries at this doorway," Jyr ordered one of the Wookiees. "If anything comes up that ladder you are to retreat from the opening and push the door closed. Inform me immediately if any change, no matter how slight. We can't let these droids make it to the surface."

The slightly taller Wookiee rumbled his agreement and replaced Jyr at the opening. Luke followed his friend back to the surface and plopped down against the trunk of one of Kashyyyk's massive trees. Jyr sat down cross-legged next to him.

"Your thoughts?" he asked.

Luke blew out a quick breath. "I sense a great deal of importance here, but I can't put my finger on it."

"The vault, I think, is something that we should investigate."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "I don't think we can make it all the way to the lower levels…at least not right away. If we make several droid killing expeditions we might be able to wear down their numbers to a manageable level."

"I got the impression from the holo that there's a droid factory below that will replace any that we kill," Jyr said.

Luke frowned. "In that case I don't how we can get down there…unless we can sneak by?"

Jyr considered that. "It's worth a try. I'll have the Alliance send us a couple of their most advanced stealth field generators."

Luke smiled. "Actually, I had something else in mind."


	40. Chapter 40

Illuminated only by the thin column of light overhead, three spider droids waited at the foot of the Rakatan-built ladder when a small object fell down the shaft. It landed at their angular legs and exploded.

Ion energy surged through their circuits, blowing out those that couldn't handle the strain and disrupting those that could. The three droids stood motionless until an armored figure dropped from above and released a 360-degree force wave, blowing them clear of the ladder.

An armored hand lifted to horizontal position and fried the disabled droids with a strong burst of force lightning before it reached down to the Jedi's hip and pulled free his lightsaber. White light flooded the tunnel and Jyr's helmeted head looked around for more droids.

A moment later, after Ki's force summons, Luke dropped down the shaft and landed gracefully on the balls of his feet. He stood up from his crouch and disappeared from view.

_Hurry_, Jyr urged him through their force link.

Luke softly ran down the tunnel, feeling the scurrying of droid legs approaching from further ahead. With his lightsaber gripped but deactivated in his right hand, and the force bending the limited light around him while suppressing his own infra-red signature, Luke rounded the corner and stepped to the side as a swarm of droids approached.

They didn't fire down the corridor at him, and he made sure to step clear of their path. He stood next to the right side of the wall and waited…ready to snap his lightsaber on to defend himself if his force camouflage failed to defeat their sensors.

Luke suppressed a sigh of relief as the droids filed by, afraid that their audio sensors might pick it up. Fourteen spider droids in all rounded the turn and headed for the ladder where Jyr was waiting for them.

_It worked_, Luke told him through their force link. They had mutually agreed that using a comlink would be too dangerous. The droids might have ways of detecting the signal.

_Be careful_, Luke heard him say as he briefly saw a droid fly backwards, across his line of sight, and further down the tunnel he had just left.

_You can leave now_, Luke reminded him as he continued to hear Jyr fighting. The spider droid that he had thrown back scrambled past Luke's corridor and hurried to return to the fight. Further down the smaller, dark corridor he could hear more droids coming.

_I'm going to get a sample of their armor for my techs to analyze. And the more parts they have to study the better_.

_Be quick about it_, Luke warned him. _I sense more coming_.

_Don't worry about me. Get moving and watch out for the big droid. It might have different sensors_.

_Right_, Luke reminded himself as he quietly ran down the corridor, masking his sonic signature as much as he could. Luckily the material that the floor was made of didn't echo with each step, but it did produce a muted 'thump' which a simple force technique was able to minimize. The trick of it all was in multi-tasking multiple stealth abilities simultaneously.

Pulling on his force senses in the pitch black corridor, Luke moved in sync with the upper level schematics that he'd memorized earlier. Oddly enough, the gigantic facility had no lifts, only a series of ramps that connected the various levels. Luke headed to the closest of these and when he neared the site he found that it was the route that the droid reinforcements were using to rise from the lower levels.

Two of the bipedal droids stood guard over the ramp. Luke gingerly crept closer and closer to them, testing his invisibility against whatever sensors they might have. He closed to within two meters before sidestepping past them and slowly descending the wide ramp, unwilling to move faster than a snail's pace for fear of disrupting his light-bending field.

A few minutes later, when he was out of their direct line of 'sight,' he picked up his pace and wound his way down the corkscrewing series of square ramps that opened up to each level on the same southerly side. Below, Luke could see his first glimpse of light working its way up the spiral from the lower, powered levels.

He traced his way down the Dragon-wide path until the level opening was in clear view. He noticed that the walls were pure white and made of a different material than the upper levels had been…but it was the sign of a large, gnarled dent in the left wall that drew his attention.

_Looks like the Rakatans made it this far down. This level is constructed of a different, weaker material. I can see a meter-wide blast crater in the wall_, he reported to Jyr, refraining from sending sensory images as he needed to focus on maintaining his invisibility.

_You're past the blackout then?_ Jyr asked.

_Yes, and there're no droids in sight…yet._

_See anything interesting?_

_Plenty of offshoots, too many to follow. Any suggestions?_

_Schematics show a huge chamber nearby. Try there first._

_Ok, _Luke agreed, remembering what Jyr was talking about. The map had shown a hanger-sized chamber a few hundred meters from the ramps and he thought he remembered the correct path to get there.

Slowly walking through the brightly lit corridor, he guessed that the Attonyyks must have been two to three meters tall, and maybe ten or so meters long. The triangular doorways extended well above his head, but widened out at the base, suggesting that they had been built for quadrupeds whose legs jutted out sideways.

Luke turned a corner and spotted a third type of droid hovering down the corridor. It was pyramidal in shape with a single focusing array on one face. Luke stepped to the side and let the half meter-wide droid pass by, thinking it oddly resembled a triangular Death Star.

Pushing the thought aside, Luke continued on and arrived at the archway into the chamber a few minutes later. He stopped a meter inside it, completely dumbfounded.

The chamber was circular, with meter-high padded pedestals, each the size of a landing pad, arrayed around the perimeter where Luke guessed the Dragons would have sat. There were hundreds of them, four rows deep in an offsetting pattern that allowed a decent view of the _kilometer_-wide hologram in the center.

Luke stood before a holographic map of the galaxy, so large and in such exquisite detail that it blew his mind away. It slowly rotated around the center, making a full circuit maybe twice an hour, he guessed.

His gaze drifted up above his head where he noticed one of the satellite galaxies, the Dumar Expanse he figured, based on the position of the galactic arms. Luke looked across the chamber to where the Rishi Maze should have been, but he couldn't see past the galactic bulge in the center.

He stood staring at the gigantic display for many minutes before Jyr's beckoning brought him back to his senses.

_It's some kind of museum or public information center. There are hundreds of seats arrayed around the largest holo I've ever seen._

_Seen any droids yet?_

_Just a small one that floated. It didn't notice me either. I…_Luke cut off suddenly as the faint sound of clicking legs wormed its way through his awe at the spectacle before him. He focused his senses on the sound and found it originated from two places…one was in the corridors behind him, and the other came from an archway a quarter turn to his right around the 'galactic perimeter.'

_It can't be,_ Luke thought to himself as the clicks got consistently louder. _They have to be heading up to the surface to replace the droids Jyr took out._

Standing still and stretching out his senses as much as he could without jeopardizing his invisibility he tracked the progress of the droids. Little by little they seemed to be closing in on his position until finally the group coming from the other side of the holo emerged from the archway.

Luke glanced at the bright lights around him. _Lights I can handle, so long as they don't become as intense as lasers. _The Jedi hesitated as half a thought struck him. He couldn't quite narrow it down, but felt something very important drifting just outside the perimeter of his conscious thought.

_Lights…power. Power for the holo, the heat, the air…oh, blast it! They better not have internal sensors._

As soon as Luke formed the thought he knew he was right. The upper levels didn't have power, so the city's internal sensor array couldn't detect him and transfer the data to the droids. Here, where the power still flowed freely, he'd been exposed…or had he? The droids were moving on his position but hadn't fired a shot yet.

_Maybe I'm alright, _he thought as the second ground emerged behind him. Again, none of the droids fired on him, but they did stop a few meters short of his position, where he was hunkered up against the side of the archway. They stood in place with their blaster orifices tracking left and right within their armored torsos, directly below the two 'arms' that extended out of their horizontal 'backs.'

Luke didn't move a muscle, and waited with growing dread as the second group crossed the chamber and encircled him. Jyr beckoned him with further questions through their force link but he didn't dare respond. He put all his effort and concentration into making his cloak of invisibility as perfect as he could. Obviously they droids were alerted to his presence, but it seemed they couldn't get a precise lock on him…or maybe their targeting sensors couldn't process a non-entity.

To Luke's dread, one of the spider droids walked toward his position and forced him to step aside. When he did the droid rotated its blaster 'eye' towards him and jutted an arm forward, nearly bashing Luke's head.

He ducked beneath the blow, but the movement was enough to minutely disrupt his invisibility and give the internal sensors sufficient data to transmit to the droids. Luke felt the blaster shot coming before the droid had completely turned to orient on him.

He jumped over the assembled droids and ran back the way he came. He got three steps before two blaster bolts forced him to ignite his lightsaber to block them, ending any chance he had at stealthing his way out of this mess. 

He felt Jyr say something to him, but he was juking left and right so fast that he couldn't concentrate on their telepathy. Dozens of blaster shots forced him to dance around as he erratically made his way towards the nearest corner and the cover it would provide him.

Luke didn't even have the luxury of knocking over the droids with the force, he had to spend all his energy and concentration on blocking their blaster attacks…so much so that he barely registered the third group of droids that came up from behind him and joined in the assault.

Luke's flexible armor took a hit, twisting his torso a half turn backwards. He went with the momentum and completed a full turn while dropping into a crouch. He launched upward out of the crouch and lept over the incoming droids, force pushing two aside as he bolted for the corridor five meters away, hoping they wouldn't get a lucky shot at his back.

Several shots impacted the wall beside him, narrow misses that ceased as soon as he made the turn and took him out of the droids' sites. _Bad, bad idea,_ he communicated one-way to Jyr as he ran hard for the ramp. He could sense more and more droids converging on his position…far more than they'd had to deal with on the upper, powerless levels.

Luke extinguished his lightsaber and reestablished his invisibility, hoping it would confuse the droids enough to forestall any immediate shots once he encountered them. He ran a few more seconds then turned the next corner, immediately sliding to a halt.

Over a hundred spider droids and four bipedals crowed the corridor in front of him.

_Back… _Luke said to himself as he ran the opposite direction down the hall, not daring to go back towards the holo chamber. One spider droid took a random shot at his approximate location, but it missed wide left as Luke sprinted away from them.

He made another blind turn and was relieved when he didn't encounter any more droids. _Now where?_ he asked himself. He was in a section of the facility that he wasn't familiar with, and he couldn't retrace his steps back to the surface through that droid army.

Luke gritted his teeth and picked a random direction. _That way,_ he decided, taking off at a quick jog.


	41. Chapter 41

Luke turned another corner and waved a single spider droid back down the corridor it had come from and into two of its kin. He reversed his turn and went down the opposite hallway and pried up a locked door on his left as quickly as he could. He slid through the one meter opening then let the door drop to the ground. Luke glanced around the squarish room and quickly found another exit on the far wall, which he ran towards immediately.

This was the seventh time that he'd eluded the mass of droids hunting him, and the seventh time that they'd found a way to intercept him despite his superior speed. Once, he'd had to cut through the floor with his lightsaber in order to drop to the next level when the droids had cornered him. The tough white tiles made the task agonizingly difficult as Luke had to mentally hold two doors closed while he cut through the resistant material.

Now that he was in the powered sections of the facility, the doors would raise and lower on their own, always at an inappropriate time for Luke. Holding them in place with the force was the only way he could give himself enough time to cut through to another level and circumvent the droid blockades.

After that near debacle, Luke had been careful not to linger in any one area for too long. He kept himself constantly on the move, despite the fact that he had no idea where he was going.

He knew that he'd dropped another four levels below where he had begun, but beyond that he had little idea where the past half hour of fleeing had taken him. And given his dwindling options he was probably going to have to drop another level to avoid the droids massing above him.

Luke had thought about cutting through the ceiling and going back up to the surface…but the ceilings were just too high for him to reach. In order to cut through the floor he'd had to apply as much physical leverage to his saber as his arms could manage…leverage he couldn't manifest through telekinesis.

He'd tried anyway, but failed to make more than a thumb-sized dent in the ceiling, and by then the droids had found him again, thanks to the ever vigilant internal sensors tracking his every move. Right now his only asset was his superior speed, without which he would have long since been killed.

Luke now understood why the Infinite Empire had failed to capture this place…the Attonyyk droids would overwhelm any blaster-wielding army, and even those equipped with ion-weaponry wouldn't be able to fully penetrate their armor with a single hit.

Given the number of droids involved and their probable ability to create more as needed, the internal security of the Dragons' city was as robust as any Luke had ever seen. Orbital bombardment would have been the obvious alternative to a ground invasion, but the damage resistant outer layers of the city apparently made that impractical, though Luke wondered if they had indeed tried and that was the reason why the upper levels were without power. Maybe they'd punched a few holes in the outer hull that had severed the power conduits…or maybe they had cut the power from the inside to disable the pesky internal sensors?

Either way, this place was far more formidible than Luke had expected it to be. The fact that the Attonyyk had actually _lost_ the war with the Rakata made Luke shudder to think what the Infinite Empire had actually been capable of.

Luke pulled open the far door and darted through…into a massive corridor, similar in size to the one that ringed the city. This one, however, led further inward, or so he thought. He'd gotten turned around so many times he couldn't be sure.

Luke heard droids approaching far off to the right, so he sprinted to his left, accelerating to a blur of motion down the long straight tunnel moving, ironically, further inside the city. The droids were herding him in a very deliberate and premeditated direction…

A side door opened and more droids spilled out a few meters behind him. He chose to continue on rather than turn and fight. Last time he'd done that, more had come up from behind and tried to pin him down while hoards of reinforcements moved to surround him. No…he'd keep moving unless he had no choice. He had to stay alive long enough to stumble onto a route out of here, and for now that meant escape, not combat.

The droids took that choice away from him when another group emerged from a side tunnel ahead of him and eclipsed his view of the path ahead in a swarm of metallic limbs, clicking on the floor in such large numbers it sounded like he was nearing a waterfall. Luke continued to run forward into the droid army, deciding to try and break through, rather than let those behind him have a chance of catching up and joining their brethren.

When in range, Luke picked the first three spider droids up simultaneously and threw them backward into the others as sporadic blaster bolts started spilling out of the crowd. His white blade caught the few that neared him even as he reached forward with his free hand and loosed a cascade of white energy into the forward ranks of the hoard.

The first ten or so droids froze in place, with two blocking the door that the reinforcements were coming through. One of which was kicked aside as a bipedal stepped through the doorway.

_Sithspit_, Luke thought, picking up one of the frozen spider droids and launching it at the bipedal just before he jumped up and into the sea of droids.

He landed in between the legs of two of them on a twenty centimeter square section of floor visible through the metallic gaggle. Lucky not to have been shot on the way down, Luke summoned all the energy he could and released a 360-degree force wave outward from his enclosed body.

The droids flew outward like leaves in the wind, and Luke used the opportunity to sprint further down the hall, leaping over any fallen droid in his path as they crawled to their feet. He extended his lightsaber behind his back as he ran and blocked three shots that would have hit him in the spine.

With clear hallway ahead of him he suddenly stopped at the sound of a large crash from behind, quickly followed by the cackle of force lightning. He turned around and saw the glare of Jyr's white blade emerge from the side hallway that the droids had originally been spilling through.

Luke smiled and headed back toward the fight, where he saw the bipedal droid lifted up off its feet and smashed into the ceiling, from which it fell with another crash on top of more spider droids…some of which, Luke noted, were already smashed beyond repair.

Jyr let out a spherical burst of force energy, blowing off anything around him, including the spider droid that had jumped up over his head and tried to land on top of him. It reversed direction and crunched against the ceiling, only to come down atop a crescendo of force lightning that put it out of its misery.

Luke signaled his location to Jyr via the force while he lifted the two nearest droids and threw them far down the hallway toward the second approaching army, scattering them as they crawled toward the two Jedi.

Aer-ki threw the big droid toward the newcomers and left the remaining spider droids behind as he sprinted toward Luke. They fell into step side by side and ran away from the droids further down the gigantic corridor.

"I hope you know a way out of here," Luke said as they ran in synchronous blurs, "because I'm completely lost."

"There are thousands of droids above us," Jyr said as they rounded a corner into a smaller, yet still large side tunnel, "with more moving up. We're either going to have to fight our way through them or find a way around them…which means going down more levels and trying to outrun them laterally."

"Down," Luke said, "I'm starting to get tired. D.D. is taking a lot out of me."

"Which is why I started crushing them with other droids," Jyr added as they slid to a stop and he pried open another side door.

Luke closed it behind them and used the force to hold it shut, even as the city's computer tried to remotely open it for when the droids finally caught up.

Jyr stepped into the center of the room and drove his lightsaber down hard into the floor. It gave beneath his pressure, a few centimeters every second, until the blade was almost completely hidden. The last few centimeters suddenly slid through until the hilt hit the floor.

Aer-ki pulled the blade back up slightly, having cut all the way through to the ceiling below them. He was lucky he hadn't come down atop a wall, or he'd have had to remove the blade and try somewhere else.

Summoning the upper-body strength that he'd developed through years of training at his hidden enclave, the Jedi Knight pulled the long blade laterally, barely moving it against the meter of material it now had to cut through.

Slowly, almost too subtle to see, the hole morphed into an oval that soon stretched into a line that slowly arced. Minute after minute passed until Jyr's blade returned to its original point of penetration and the thick plug suddenly dropped to the level below them.

Jyr slid through the opening, careful not to touch the still glowing side walls. He landed in a crouch below, followed by Luke a moment later.

"This way," Jyr said, sprinting off to his left. Luke followed half a step behind him.


	42. Chapter 42 Epiphany

Over the next few hours Luke and Aer-ki descended several more levels, each time trying to outflank the droids and in the process ended up crossing half the Attonyyk city laterally. But to their continual frustration, every time they opened up some distance on the droids they would soon lose their advantage and be forced down another level, and another, and another…until they reached level 131.

Here the city's corridors doubled, if not tripled in size, with the main tunnels expanding out far enough to allow three of the old style AT-ATs to walk side by side without worrying about bumping into each other. It was in one of these massive tunnels that the Jedi discovered the one droid _they_ _could not destroy_.

It was as tall as the Imperial Walkers but five times their length, and covered in armor plating so thick that Luke and Jyr didn't have a chance of cutting through without devoting minutes, if not hours to the task. The droid gleamed in its gold plating and dwarfed the bipedals and spider droids that clustered around its four massive feet as it lumbered quickly toward the Jedi.

The Dragon droid mimicked the image of its creators, almost an exact duplicate of the Attonyyk in the holo message…only this droid was at least ten times larger. It had a triangular head with a mouth full of weaponry, including a massive plasma-based flamethrower with a kill range of at least 40 meters. But unlike other massive mechanical beasts, this droid was agile. Its armored claws, legs, tail, head, and even its body were potent weapons…and it employed all of them to try and kill the intruders.

Jyr had quickly climbed one of its legs and jumped up onto the Dragon droid's flat back where he tried to cut through what must have been meter-thick battle plates when the massive construct barrel-rolled and nearly crushed Luke's friend beneath it. Jyr was thrown to the ground, but managed to pick himself up and jump clear before the building-sized mass could crush him underneath.

Meanwhile Luke had hit the droid with as much DD as he could manage while evading the army of smaller droids accompanying the brute. To his dismay, his attack had no effect at all, and Luke had to quickly jump clear of an angry tail lash that ground a half dozen spider droids into the wall. Pieces clattered to the floor, smashed beyond recognition, despite their formidable armor. This Dragon droid was beyond anything Luke had ever encountered…living or mechanical.

Fortunately it couldn't fit into the side passages, so Luke and Jyr were able to evade its reach, but they still had to be careful of its plasma flame, which could snake its way far inside the smaller passageways. Their respite was quickly ended, however, as another army of spider droids sought to drive them out of the various chambers and back into the Dragon droid's kill zone.

Not wanting to shirk the challenge at hand, Jyr took another crack at the massive droid while Luke kept the little ones off his back. He tried every force attack he could manage, but nothing could penetrate the droid's armor, which must have been made of the same material as the city's outer hull and that which had been _coated_ onto the smaller droids.

Jyr's attacks drew ion fire from the brute's mouth. The blasts were so intense that they could have vaporized flesh on contact, and even a glancing blow to the smaller droids fried their internal circuits in a fraction of a second. Evading them required precise timing or running underneath the Dragon droid's legs and hoping not to get stopped or laid on in the process.

A quick signal from Jyr prompted Luke to turn and run back to the side passages. He busted through a quartet of spider droids and sprinted through a seven meter tall doorway where he quickly rounded three more turns, putting himself far enough inside the maze of inner corridors that he needn't fear another penetrating plasma attack.

A few moments later Jyr's armored body bolted around the corner and joined him in hiding.

"I think I got the ion cannon," he said through his external mic.

"Are you cooked?" Luke asked, noting several melted points on his armor.

"No," Jyr said, forcing his left elbow to bend, despite a shiny melted patch joining the armored plates together. After a great effort his armor broke in two, crudely freeing his joint so it would move again. "But I did have to let it open its mouth before I could hit the cannon."

"With what, a droid?" Luke asked, impressed.

"Force lightning," Jyr said, pulling off his helmet and examining it, "at extreme range."

"Lucky hit."

"Very," Jyr said, sliding his slightly melted helmet back on. He heard clattering sounds approaching and nudged Luke further down the hallway.

"What's our next move?" Luke asked.

"We've got to get off this level, but we can't risk going down any more."

"Agreed," Luke said, glancing over his shoulder. "But the droids have probably already sealed off the hole we cut to get down here…unless you want to try the ramps?"

Jyr shook his helmeted head. "Too many droids. We'll have to find a nice quiet place to cut our way back up."

Luke ground his teeth, cursing himself for the hundredth time for getting them into this mess. Then an idea hit him.

"Remember that water room?" he asked, referring to the Dragon's watering 'troughs' that were as big as swimming pools.

"What about it?"

"How big do you think the water conduit is?"

Jyr stopped in his tracks. "We can enlarge it if we have to. Question is…is there another chamber on this level?"

Luke stepped past him and threw back a spider droid as it rounded the far turn behind them. "Look fast," he said as they split up.

Twenty minutes later Luke found another 'watering hole' as he'd come to think of it, and summoned Jyr to his position. The Jedi caught up to him after a few minutes of cat and mouse with the spider droids and fused the seams of the door closed behind him with his lightsaber.

"Over here," Luke said as he showed him where he had pried up a floor panel. "I've shut off the valve from below, but there's no way of knowing how much water is above us…or if there's another main connecting into the system."

"Only one way to find out," Jyr said, igniting his white blade and jabbing it down into the half-meter wide pipe that ran underneath their feet. A bolt of steam jabbed upward as his blade superheated the water in the pipe, but soon he opened a cut large enough for the clear liquid to surge out with the power of a small flood.

Luke glanced at the sealed door, then back at the massive amount of water that was gushing into the room from above and decided to cut a drain in the floor. It took him a while to find a spot thin enough, but when he did he drug his blade through the tough floor tiles and the now three inches of water covering the chamber until a meter-wide plug fell through to the next level and took the majority of the indoor pond with it.

The two Jedi waited while their improvised waterfall drained the upper level conduits, hoping it would subside before the droids were able to cut through the door.

* * *

Nearly half an hour later, with a few small, droid-cut holes in the door that Luke continually poked back through with his lightsaber, the raging waters suddenly fell silent and the conduit settled down into a small pool beneath their feet.

Jyr quickly used the force to draw out the rest of the water in the lateral pipe and quickly pulled himself out of his armor. He crawled in head first, then backed out and turned to Luke.

"It's a tight fit, but I don't think we'll have to cut until we reach the top."

"Better than fighting these droids," Luke said, pulling off his soft body armor.

Jyr dove back into the pipe with Luke following a few seconds later. He resisted the urge to use his lightsaber for illumination and felt out the pipe ahead of him with the force. He could sense his friend round the angle and begin the climb up the vertical pipe, fighting the slippery surface with every move of his body.

When Luke pulled his head out over the vertical shaft he could touch a small pool of water and sense the valve he had closed a meter below. Pressing his hands on either side of the narrow shaft, he pulled himself out over the pool, dropped his legs into the warm water, and began to climb up, using the force to enhance his grip.

Up and up the Jedi climbed, inch by inch, for more hours than Luke could count in the dark, claustrophobic pipe until he heard Jyr ignite his lightsaber above him.

He squeezed his night-adjusted eyes closed against the harsh light while making sure he didn't lose his grip and slide all the way back down to where they started. After a few seconds he blinked against the white glare until his eyes adjusted, then looked up just as Jyr popped out a section of the pipe.

Luke crawled up and followed his friend out of the conduit where he painstakingly stretched his cramped muscles. "Let's not do that again."

Aer-ki half smiled. "We're on the 11th level…and probably visible to the internal sensors again."

Luke jerked, realizing how dumb they had just been. "We're lucky they didn't track us in the pipe."

"I was checking each level as we climbed. If there were droids waiting for us we could have gone back down and fought our way out of the original chamber," Jyr said as he pulled his pair of lightsabers out of his body suit's waistband. Without his armor's attachment slots, he'd had to improvise. "Once we find the nearest ramp, I want you to try and sneak up to the next level while I distract the droids. Then you can cut a hole in the floor for me to climb through."

Luke cringed. "Alright, but we're still a long way away from our entry point."

"I know, but at least it gives me a lot of room to distract the droids. We have to hurry, though, or their friends on the lower levels will be joining them."

"That's assuming there still aren't a few thousand waiting for us up here."

Jyr shrugged. "Better than ten thousand. Let's move."

Both Jedi took off at a run towards where they guessed the nearest ramp would be, but it wasn't thirty seconds before Jyr suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Luke asked, concerned.

"It's them," he said, ashen faced.

"Who?" Luke asked, oblivious.

Jyr looked at him, suddenly clenching his jaw and fist. His emotions shifted from dread to intense anger. "Can't you feel it?"

Luke focused his attention on his feelings and caught a flicker of something above them, but it slipped from his senses.

"We have to get to the surface, now!" Jyr all but yelled as he sprinted down the corridor.

"Ki, wait!" Luke shouted as he ran after him. He'd never felt his friend so scared or enraged, let alone at the same time. As he struggled to keep up with Jyr's frantic pace realization dawned on Luke as his senses crystallized around the sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach and his mind processed the logic of the situation. There was only one thing he knew of that could have provoked such a severe reaction from his friend.

It was the nameless enemy that Aer-ki had been preparing his entire life to face. The threat that Luke had initially mistaken the Insectoids for when they had first appeared in this galaxy, and the threat against which Jyr had created the Shadow Alliance to fight. Whatever it was that filled him with such dread had finally emerged.

And it was here, now, on Kashyyyk.


	43. Chapter 43

Luke couldn't keep up with Jyr. His speed had always been lacking compared to that of his friend, but without his armor slowing him down, Aer-ki had gotten so far ahead that he'd disappeared from view.

His presence was easy enough to follow with the force, but Luke wasn't going to be able to help him fight when they encountered more of the droids if Jyr didn't slow down. He had tried to emphasize this fact through their force link, but the lurking new threat had Aer-ki in such an agitated state that he didn't know if his friend could even hear him.

Up ahead he suddenly felt Jyr slip into combat mode as he encountered more droids. Luke got a collage of images from Jyr and the sense of a large number of droids blocking their path. To his dismay, Jyr plowed right into them.

The sounds of battle drifted back to Luke as he sprinted through the corridors, desperate to catch up. He passed a solitary spider droid picking itself up off its back and knocked it into the side wall before it could take aim at him. Surrounding himself in the light-bending force aura once again, Luke ran into the fray as he rounded the next corner.

Droids lay scattered everywhere, but none of them dead. They twisted and crawled into upright positions after having been violently knocked back from the wide ramp visible just ahead. More droids fell down the ramp into their reinforcements rising from below, and Luke knew that he had to move now, in Jyr's wake, or be left alone to find his own way out of the city.

He lept over the downed droids and onto the ramp, suddenly ducking as more came clambering down ahead of him. A little force tug and he slipped between them as he quickly climbed the ramp and caught a glimpse of Jyr overhead.

A huge force wave cleared the next landing and he heard Jyr's mental summons for the first time since he had went berserk. Luke smiled and double-timed it to catch up with him on the landing as he tried to clear out a downward moving carpet of spider droids from the upper levels.

_Stay close_, Jyr insisted as he jumped up amongst the moving carpet of metal and into a crack between two droids. His lightsaber flared to life as he began blocking aside blaster bolts, all the while force-shoving aside droids as he plowed upward against the descending flow.

Landing a meter behind him, Luke released his invisibility and brandished his own lightsaber, intent on protecting Jyr's back. He turned to face the rear and walked backwards up the ramp, blocking or throwing aside droids as needed…but it was Jyr who was doing most of the work.

The bipedals guarding the platform above fired ion bolts down on top of them, but Jyr managed to lift several spider droids off the ground to intercept the wide, unblockable blasts. Once fried by the friendly fire, he launched them as projectiles up into the bipedals and drove the lot back into the hundreds of waiting droids.

The small part of Luke's mind that wasn't caught up in the battle wondered how Jyr was managing to pull this much power in his fatigued state. He'd always known his friend was stronger than him, and had granted the possibility that he'd even been holding out on Luke a bit…but the power required to do what he was doing was far beyond what the Aer-ki Jyr that he knew was capable of.

That said, he wasn't about to look a gift nerf in the face. However he was doing it, Jyr was able to disrupt and dislodge the droids just enough for the two of them to pass. Luke just hoped his friend's strength would hold out until they got to the top of the ramp.

* * *

A very long ten minutes later they emerged onto the top level, broke through the droid blockade, and escaped down the empty corridors, guarding their backs from a hail of blaster fire. They'd managed to make the ascent back to the top level, but they were still on the wrong side of the city and hours away from the ladder back to the surface.

For the moment Luke didn't mind. He was just glad to be momentarily free of the droids. What they'd just done was crazy, and Aer-ki has received a nasty blaster burn to his left forearm as a memento of their foolishness…but they were past the worst of it, racing back across the city with only clusters of a few dozen droids to get by instead of the packs of hundreds roaming the city below them.

That said, they still ran as quickly as they dared, hoping the lower-level droids wouldn't have time to redeploy to the upper levels and cut them off from their target. They could still track them with the internal sensors, and even the simplest droid brain could deduce their eventual destination. The only question now was…who was faster?

Two hours later their odds increased as they passed into the dark section of the city and freed themselves from the constant over watch of the internal sensors. They were close now, and Luke could feel his heart beating a bit faster in anticipation of their escape.

That heartbeat jumped another notch as he sensed a hoard of droids ahead, clustered around their one and only exit to the surface. Judging from the vague sense that he could get from this distance, he guessed there could easily be a thousand droids waiting for them.

Jyr eventually slid to a stop when the first droids came into view, with Luke doing likewise beside him.

"I'll pull them down a side tunnel," Luke offered before Jyr could say anything. "My invisibility will work up here. When the numbers thin down, make for the ladder. I'll be right behind you."

"Good luck," Jyr added as Luke slipped from view and slowly ran ahead.

He couldn't see much from the tiny pillar of light that flooded down the ladder in the far distance, so Luke had to rely primary on his proximity senses to tiptoe his way through the droids. Eventually he reached the wide T-junction that they had previously traveled down during their first incursion with the techs.

The Jedi sentinel released his invisibility and ignited his lightsaber. He threw a wave of force lightning at the assembled droids then ran slowly down the tunnel and _away_ from the ladder.

The hoard flooded after him, firing as they went. Jyr waited patiently, his growing dread at the threat above tempered only by his tactical sense. When the droid numbers had thinned down to less than a hundred he decided that was few enough and made a run for the ladder.

The remaining guard droids were scattered throughout the tunnel and easily bypassed, but a half dozen bipedals guarding the ladder opened up with their ion cannons, forcing Jyr to dodge back and forth in a zigzag pattern as he approached. Before he could attack them, Luke reappeared directly behind the tall droids and knocked them to the ground. He added a good dose of DD and scattered the nearest spider droids with a few isolated force blows as he blocked incoming blaster fire and guarded the base of the ladder.

Jyr battered aside the remaining droids and slid to a stop directly beneath their exit point. He summoned his remaining energy and jumped straight up. Luke stepped in behind him, gave one last look to the droids, then jumped halfway up the shaft where he caught the ladder and climbed the remainder of the way up.

"I'm sorry for getting you into that, Ki…" Luke said when he reached the top, then suddenly stopped as he realized they were alone in the Rakatan outpost. There should have been a dozen techs and Wookiees waiting for them. "I have a bad feeling about this," he whispered just before Jyr slumped against the wall and fell to the ground in exhaustion.


	44. Chapter 44

"Blast it, Ki," Luke said as he knelt next to Jyr, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You're spent."

"No choice," Jyr said in a whisper. "I'll be fine in a bit. There's someone outside. Find them, quickly. I sense we don't have much time."

Luke hesitated, then decided to take Jyr at his word. He left his friend sitting on the floor and jumped to his feet. Within a minute he was outside the Rakatan outpost and back on Kashyyyk's overgrown surface. He felt someone nearby and focused his senses back in the direction of the Star Map, on the other side of the facility.

He ran around the dig site, eerily aware of how quite it had become, his hand brushing against his lightsaber's hilt every few seconds, ready for action. Exhausted as he was from the hours of fighting below, the crisp tension of the situation had him on edge and ready for whatever was to come.

Luke passed the Star Map and found the individual he was looking for in the brush just beyond. It was a male Shadow Alliance tech, half unconscious, half delirious with two thick stone/metal slivers sticking out of his chest…and his life force was fading fast.

Luke tried to reinforce the tech's strength but found it was too little too late. Before his life finally gave out, the man's eyes cleared and he looked up at the Jedi. "They tracked…the shuttle…shot it down…shot us."

A subtle flow of energy from Luke reinforced the man's clarity even as his body failed him. "They saw the…star map…they…are…bringing others…back……..Kashyyyk is…"

Whatever the man was trying to say was lost in a wash of disorientation. His head went limp in Luke's hand and his last breath passed across his quivering lips.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Luke let the man's body settle to the forest floor then examined his wounds. The stone/metal spikes had sunk deep into his chest cavity, probably puncturing a lung in the process. They were still seeping blood from the wounds, but the silvery material seemed untarnished. It gleamed in arrogant defiance in sharp contrast to the tech's blood-splotched uniform.

Luke slid a finger along one of the spikes and discovered that it was tightly lodged in the man's ribs. The material was smooth and alien. He'd never encountered anything like it before…which further reinforced his unease. This spot in the forest felt like a ticking time bomb, he could feel a tightening in the air around him and knew from experience this was a precognitive warning of danger.

They had to get out of here soon.

Luke ran back to the Rakatan outpost and found Jyr sitting against the wall where he'd left him. He told him of the tech's last words and Jyr's expression hardened. The Jedi clenched his jaw and dragged himself to his feet. He momentarily checked his balance, then resumed his normal demeanor despite the weakness Luke could sense in him.

When they reached the surface Jyr stretched out with his senses and detected another faint lifeform to the west. "It could be the crashed shuttle," he suggested to Luke, before snapping his vision back to the south. Both Jedi felt the newcomers approaching en mass.

"That's them," Jyr said calmly. "I can feel it."

"So can I," Luke added, "but you're in no condition to fight."

"I will if I have to," Jyr said, holding up both lightsabers in his hands. "But I'd rather get a look at what we're facing first."

Luke glanced around. "Up there," he said, indicating a ridgeline to the north. "But we have to hurry. They're moving faster than they should be."

Jyr took off at a slow run without any further comment. Luke stuck close behind him as they worked their way between trees and scaled the vertical ridgeline using the trunk of an off center tree as a ramp. They pulled back from the precipice a few meters and ducked behind an oversized tree trunk. Luke's head stuck out on the left and Jyr's on the right, with about 400 meters of distance back to the dig site.

"So these are the guys you've been waiting your entire life to face?" Luke asked while they waited.

Jyr nodded. "I'm sure of it. I've been sensing them for over a century…far, far away. Now that they're this close there's no mistaking their presence."

"Alright," Luke said as they felt the first of the group approach the dig site, "let's see what we've got."

Running through the brush and bursting into the manmade clearing came a pair of humanoids with spikes extruding from their arms in the reverse direction. They had a reddish complexion and wore dark silver armor, but kept their spiked heads bare. They each carried a large weapon in one hand and kept glancing left and right, searching the area.

Behind them came a larger humanoid species. These had no 'head' on their shoulders, but rather had a wide skull nearer their center of mass that jutted forward ever so slightly. Large, bulky arms extruded from either side of the 'head,' ending in large pinchers where a human would have hands. They wore little armor, and numbered in the dozens.

With them came a third species, slightly taller than the others and far more elegant. These pale skinned humanoids were trim with metallic vests that exposed their nearly white, toothpick arms. A mane of green hair sprouted from a single point on their heads and flowed backwards into a braided ponytail that draped down their backs. All of the ones that Luke could see appeared to be female, but he couldn't make out enough detail to be sure.

Altogether there were about sixty of them, and they spread out across the dig site in coordinated formation. Within a minute they had a picket line established with pockets of guards situated to reinforce any point along the line that came under attack. The three alien species all held their ground, not one of them moving, not even those near the Star Map and the underground facility.

It was odd, almost as if they were waiting for something…

Then it came, lumbering out of the brush, nearly as tall as an old-style AT-ST.

Luke swallowed hard. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Beside him, he could have swore he heard Ki growl.

Emerging out of the brush, pushing aside a small tree in the process, walked a ten meter tall biped that looked for all the stars like a living, breathing _rock monster_.


	45. Chapter 45

When the gargantuan saw the Star Map and its corresponding hologram, it rumbled a string of language that neither Luke nor Aer-ki could hope to reproduce, let alone understand. The sound didn't emanate from a mouth, for none was visible. Instead, it appeared that the sound was being produced from bodily vibrations that reached all the way to the Jedi through both the air and ground.

Its underlings responded in a different language altogether, one that sounded more humanoid and vaguely similar to Rodian. After another ear piercing rumble from the giant, two of the elegant species began to tear apart the base of the hologram while a half dozen more led an assault team into the Rakatan facility.

"We didn't shut the door, did we?" Luke whispered.

"No," Aer-ki responded just as quiet, "but they're welcome to try their luck against the droids."

"Do you want to stay here and gather intel," Luke asked, "or move on to the crash site?"

"Let's get moving," he said, suiting action to words. Luke followed him further north until they were well away from the enemy, then they turned west and began tracking the lifeform that they guessed was a survivor from the crashed Alliance shuttle.

As they worked their way through the dense foliage they began to pick up the faint scent of burning metal, but to their surprise the lifeform appeared to be in a different direction. They briefly discussed their options and decided to track down the crash site first and see if they could scavenge any supplies from the wreckage. It had been well over a day since either of them had ate, and Jyr's comlink had been attached to his armor…which he'd left back in droid land.

Within an hour they spotted the descent line that the crashing shuttle had torn through the canopy. They followed the still smoking corridor until it bottomed out in a recently dug furrow…with an _Aurora_-class shuttle half buried at the far end.

Jyr pointed to several deep impressions in the forest floor and Luke nodded his understanding. The giant had been here already, along with its escorts who had made a large number of smaller footprints in the freshly exposed dirt. Apparently they were finished with the crash site, for neither Luke nor Jyr could sense any of them close by, though they could see the hole in the forest that the giant had pushed its way through when it headed for the Star Map.

Another similar hole, along with a couple toppled trees was visible on the other side of the narrow clearing farther to the south.

"That's easy enough to follow," Luke commented. "Want to backtrack to their ship?"

"Later," Aer-ki said as he carefully ducked inside the hot shuttle. The interior was a mess, but relatively intact. He began rifling through various containers until he found a small, flat satchel. He pried open the covering and tossed a couple of ration bars to Luke before tearing open one for himself.

"Thanks," Luke said as he caught them mid-air. He hurriedly chewed through the first to fill his empty stomach, then worked his way through the second at a more reasonable pace while he searched for any water containers.

Aer-ki pointed to the left wall, and Luke quickly uncovered a large reservoir of drinkable water built into the shuttle itself. It had leaked out half its contents already, due to a small crack in the case, but there was more than enough to satiate the two Jedi. Luke found a couple of empty canteens amongst the wreckage and filled them with what water was left.

After devouring three of the ration bars, Aer-ki moved up the narrow staircase and into the shuttle's cockpit…where he found the dead body of one of the pilots still strapped into the copilot's seat. A sliver of the fractured viewport stuck out the front and back of his head. The man had been killed instantly upon impact.

Leaving the corpse where it was, Jyr slid into the pilot's seat beside it and tried to pull up the ship's log, but half the computer systems had been destroyed, and those that were still functional were blinking on and off with intermittent power.

"Pull open that panel," Aer-ki told Luke who was standing behind him. "See if you can activate the auxiliary power cells."

Luke already had the panel off before he finished his sentence and was surveying the limited controls before him. After a few more seconds of study he jabbed two buttons in sequence…which was quickly followed by a faint hum of power. The blinking monitors stabilized.

"Good, now let's see what happened up there," Aer-ki said as he pulled up the sensor logs. They replayed from the shuttle's point of view, beginning with the exit from hyperspace to the crash landing on Kashyyyk. By the end of the fifteen minute recording both Luke and Jyr had fallen silent. According to the sensor log, the Corellian, Wookiee, and Shadow Alliance fleets in orbit had been engaged and obliterated by an alien battle fleet half their size while a huge, moon-like rock overwatched the battle as it slowly made orbit.

"Is that one of your Death Stars?" Jyr finally asked Luke.

Skywalker shook his head. "No, it's too small and not uniformly shaped. It also doesn't have a super-laser. I'd guess it's some kind of mothership."

Jyr rubbed his chin in silence for a long time afterward, and Luke let him be, sensing that he was onto something. Finally Aer-ki punched the console in frustration.

"They followed them here," he blurted out. "Shavit, I should have seen this sooner."

"Who followed who here?" Luke asked, thoroughly confused.

Aer-ki stood up and faced Luke. "The Insectoids came here from another galaxy, probably trying to escape them," he said, pointing at the frozen picture of the alien battle fleet. "But they didn't get away cleanly, and they led them right to us!"

Luke frowned in concentration. "That's why you could never find them," he concluded. "Because they were in another galaxy the entire time."

Jyr nodded. "And when I sensed a twitch a few years ago and came to find you on Endor…that was probably the time when they crossed galaxies."

"Do you think they just got here, or that they've been scouting us out for a while?" Luke asked, thinking quickly. "Kashyyyk isn't exactly on the edge of the galaxy."

Aer-ki considered that. "You're right, it's not," he said, suddenly coming to another realization. He closed his eyes, reaching out to the force to try and confirm his new theory.

A moment later he opened them suddenly, and Luke could sense a spike of fear run through his emotions. "This isn't an isolated attack. They're hitting multiple worlds across the galaxy."

Luke extended his senses as well, but got little more than a general feeling of impending doom. "How do you know that?"

"I've felt it coming for over a century. Now that it's actually happening I know what to look for. Trust me on this. I'm not wrong."

"Ok, then what's our next move?"

"I have to get to a transmitter and warn my fleet," Jyr said earnestly. "This shuttle's comm system is junk."

"How far is it to the nearest settlement?"

"Less than a day if we run."

Luke frowned. "Are you up to it?"

Jyr waved off his concern. "I've got food and water in me, I'll be fine. Grab the canteens and some extra rations. From now on we stay on the move."


	46. Chapter 46

_**9 hours before the invasion of Kashyyyk…**_

The reptilian was thrown hard against the rock wall of the cave and slumped to the ground half-conscious. The ragged man that had force-thrown him into the hard, hot rock stood a half dozen meters away, not moving, not thinking, not feeling…simply waiting to see if his opponent would rise again and continue the fight.

It did not. Two others stepped between them and lifted the damaged one up and out of the cave. The fourth and stronger one, still standing at the entrance of the cave, tossed a small food cube toward the man, then turned and left…sealing the containment bars shut with a loud thud and clank as they locked in place.

The man snatched the food cube from the air and ate it without preamble. Once finished he walked to the center of the crude prison and assumed a meditative pose upon the polished rock beneath him. He reached out through the force to the only other Human present on the volcanic world of Nathon.

He found her faint consciousness immediately and communicated the results of his fight, as had become their custom. She was being held in another cave on the other side of the compound and had no way of knowing what happened to him without breaking out of her cell and coming to see him in person.

They had long ago discovered that they had the power to break the locks on the cell doors, but the truth of the matter was that they had nowhere to go. Nathon was completely uninhabitable. No food or water existed outside the Exerket's five massive compounds that contained the entire population of the planet, all of which were the species of darkside lizards that had captured, imprisoned, and kept both of them as pets for their youngsters to train against.

At least that was how it began, but over time as the Humans outlived generation after generation of their keepers their continual persistence drew the curiosity of the more powerful darkside masters. They began to study the pair, both through medical examination and through the Force to discover the secret of their longevity…but they had never succeeded, for the simple truth of the matter was that the self-destructive nature of the darkside would prevent them from ever reaching the state of self-sufficiency that the pair of imprisoned Jedi had managed to attain despite their horrific situation.

Horrific not only in the malnourished state that they were kept in, the constant battles that they were forced to fight, the oppressive heat and ash that, without certain Force techniques to periodically clean their lungs would have killed them within a few years, and the total lack of sanitation, but the entire planet was strong in the darkside, so strong that it placed an untenable stress on those who would not succumb to its influence.

They had broken out of their cells many times and fled the compound for the isolated, volcanic wastelands that surrounded the Exerket compounds, if only to clear their minds from the oppressant, malevolent, decay-ridden presence of the darkside that flowed through the Exerket as strong as any Sith. Eventually, when starvation neared, they would reluctantly return to their confines and suffer the punishment for their absence.

The darkside of the Force could do terrible things to a mind, but to his relief and continual pride, she had never broken under their merciless torture…as he once had, long, long ago. Through either an enormous stroke of luck or the will of the Force, events had conspired to undo their influence over him, and ever since that day he had made sure that he would never again succumb to their corruptive methods…and he never had.

Here, in what must be the very pit of the darkside itself, he tested his will against its influence minute after minute, day after day, year after year. After a period of time he grew to understand the darkside as he never had before…as an observer. He learned of the insidious techniques that it used to ensnare and corrupt weak or young Force-sensitives that didn't have the skill or wherewithal to resist or understand what was happening to them until it was too late.

He had once been one of them, but she had not. She had made mistakes, terrible ones, but she had never turned or been turned to the darkside like he had been, and because of that fact he fought twice as hard to make sure that she survived.

She had come looking for him, to help him, when she had unwittingly landed her ship in the very heart of the darkside. Like him, she had underestimated the Exerket's power, and had nearly been killed in the process. He had broken out of his cell and reached her just before they were to kill her, and fought side by side with his fellow Jedi until the lizards finally relented and added her to their personal trophy collection.

From that day on he had done everything he could to help her survive, taught her everything he had learned during his initial years of captivity, and worked with her to plan their escape from the hellish world and rejoin the Jedi order.

But that never happened. The few ships that were present on Nathon were deep within the compounds with many darkside masters in near proximity. They had tried seven separate times to commandeer a ship and escape, but each time they failed miserably, were punished ruthlessly for their pathetic attempt, and eventually returned to their cells, where the next day they would fight another battle, and another, and another, until either the handlers ran out of students to train or until the Jedi finally succumbed to the ravages of time and died.

But they hadn't. They had persisted throughout the years, however long it had actually been…he didn't know, nor did she. There was no way for them to measure time, and long ago they had lost the desire to know. One day flowed into the next and the next in an unending stream of torment.

Through it all he had gained a measure of inner strength that sustained him, as did she, with his assistance. He taught her everything he could during the endless days, and it had served her well…until recent years.

After so many battles, so many tortures, so many hardships…her spirit had finally broken. The hopelessness of their situation had slowly ground down her will to live, and as a result she had begun to lose her longevity.

Her hair now flowed a faint gray, her skin had become dull and cracked, and her once agile lines had become withered skin and bones. He had watched her slowly decay, trying desperately to find a way to help her. She had become his reason to live, and without that reason he feared that he too would break.

Part of him didn't care, he just wanted this nightmare to end, even if it meant his death. That, at least, would be a change. But he didn't want her to end, she didn't deserve it. He might have, but not her. She was blameless, and imprisoned only because she had come to aid him. That made her situation all the more unbearable for him.

These thoughts were not new to him. They were old, and well tread upon. But whereas his situation had become tolerable, and his senses all but numb to it, her condition struck his emotions hard on a daily basis and had not abated since the day she had joined him in his personal hell.

Through their Force link he monitored her condition as it slowly weakened. She was tough, tougher than any Jedi he had ever known, but the unending torment had patiently chipped away at her inner spirit until she was unable to do anything but lie in despair.

The handlers had stopped sending students against her. So long had they kept their rare pets, they now waited with keen interest to see if she would finally succumb. Even the weakest of them could have killed her in battle, but that was not their aim. The Humans' longevity had long been a philosophic thorn in their side, and they wanted it to fail of its own accords.

Their faith in the darkside was so strong that they needed the persistent Jedi to be proven inferior. If one strong with the lightside could sustain their life indefinitely, it would put a lie to the nature of life and the nature of the Force, but if the Jedi were to eventually fall to attrition as everyone else did, then their superior longevity was something for the Exerket to train towards attaining and surpassing. For them, it would be viewed as a failure of theirs to attain the necessary skill level…and they abhorred failure.

Many of the darkside masters had sparred with the Jedi, trying to learn their secrets, and in the process revealing their surprising strength to their prisoners. Their mastery of the darkside was unsurpassed, and the Jedi had learned many things about their enemy that they had never been taught.

In turn, they too learned much about the Jedi, whom they had never encountered before they met him. Oh, they had met and killed several fallen Jedi. Those that had left the order and turned to the darkside, some of whom they had also taken as pets and taught some of their secrets. Those select few were then released back into the galaxy as the first Sith, whose sole mission was to hunt down and destroy their lightside brethren.

The Exerket, however, never left Nathon. They were content to study and train in the dark arts in seclusion, for what reason neither he nor she had ever learned. They knew that the Exerket viewed the rest of the galaxy with contempt, and saw the Jedi as mere pests to be exterminated by their Sith pets, but as far as either of them knew, no Sith had ever come here since their capture. They both concluded that the Exerket deemed the Sith beneath them, and only taught those few long ago out of some perverted sense of amusement.

The Exerket's inexplicable isolationism also meant that there were no ships coming to or from Nathon for the Jedi to escape on. Only three times in the long years of their imprisonment had they ever seen a ship leave or arrive on Nathon…and they had failed each time to commandeer it.

So it was to his great surprise when he sensed a strong disturbance in the force. It was difficult to ascertain with the continual disruption of the darkside ever present around them, but he definitely felt a spike of emotion flow through the Exerket inside the compound en mass. Something big was happening…and he needed to find out what it was.


	47. Chapter 47

Reaching out to the Force he ripped the cell door from its hinges, vaguely remembering the horrors they had subjected him to the last time he had done this. Despite the risk he walked out of his cage and into the harsh glare of the nearby lava flows. A few steps later he stood with the entrance to the compound at his left and the open air of Nathon's surface to his right…and then he saw them.

Ships…dozens of ships were descending from space…and as he watched the faint specs enlarge the compounds' guns opened fire on them.

He ducked alongside the rock wall as some of the ships began to return fire. Smaller specks appeared alongside the massive ships…fighters he guessed. The dots soon became swarms, headed both for this compound and the other nearby, some fifty kilometers to the east.

Holding his hand against his face, he ran off across the rocky surface, trying to deflect some of the heat from the nearby river of lava as he skirted the edge of the compound. He had to get to her quickly if they were to have any chance to take advantage of what looked to be an invasion. With the lizards distracted, they might be able to commandeer one of their ships…or maybe even one of the invaders. They could both fit into a single seat fighter if that had to…if it meant a chance of escaping this molten rock.

He ran as fast as his scraps of boots would carry him across the rocky surface. It took him nearly an hour to circle the compound's exterior until he arrived at her cave prison. By that time the invaders had already landed their troops to the north and had pummeled the compound with multiple waves of aerial assaults.

The compound's shield held against the assault, and continued to do so overhead as orbital starships added their firepower to that of the landers. He winced against the power being dissipated tens of meters over his head, then dismissed the thought immediately. If he was killed in the attack, at least he would be rid of this pathetic existence. He just had to make sure that she was with him if he were to die. He couldn't stand the thought of dying and leaving her alone to face the bleak days ahead, however few they might be.

When he got to her cell he found that her keepers had abandoned her, probably when the invaders first arrived. He ripped the door off her cell just as easily as he did his own. He may have been malnourished, but the years of fighting had made him increasingly stronger, both physically and in the Force. He laid the bent plate of metal on the rock outside and ran to where she lay on the floor.

"We're not dead yet," he croaked. He hadn't spoken a word for weeks, and his voice had suffered for it. "This planet is under attack. An invasion force has landed on the surface."

Her small eyes, hidden behind a wash of gray hair cracked open. She pried her body up off the floor and looked him in the face…a face that she hadn't seen in many years.

"You look well," she said, her voice whisper quiet. She too hadn't used her voice in quite a while.

He cracked a smile…the first once since before he could remember. "What do you say we finally get off this rock?"

"Or die trying?" she asked, sensing his thoughts.

"Or die trying," he reaffirmed.

She summoned her remaining strength, finding more than she thought she had. The chance of escape brought forth a wash of emotions, as well as a surprising strength that she had thought mere memories of the past. She extended her hand to him and he helped her to her feet. Together they set off across the rocky surface and, while giving the lava flows a wide berth, they headed toward the invaders' landing zone, mentally agreeing that was their best option for escape.

* * *

It took them a long time to cross the distance between the two battling factions. They had to outflank the attackers so as to not draw their direct attention, as well as avoid the extreme heat of the landscape. All in all, it took them well over two hours before they reached the rocky foothills that surrounded the invaders' landing zone…and they had witnessed much during their passage.

The invaders were a collage of over a dozen different species, some with pinchers where they should have had hands, some with spikes extruding from their bodies, some with large, overgrown muscles, and even some with wings. But the most surprising of all were the mammoth generals leading the fight. They stood over three times the height of a Human and massed many tons, but what was more surprising than that was that these, for lack of a better term rock monsters were actually _wading_ through the lava flows.

The other species had to go around the death rivers, but the giants actually preferred to travel within them, almost relishing in the heat. When they stepped out their legs glowed cherry red, soon to dull to their normal grey stone-like appearance.

What more startled the Jedi was the way they fought. The Exerket had come out to fight them, wielding the full power of the darkside…and it hardly affected the giants. The other species fell in droves, blood gushing from their ruptured skin…arms, legs, and wings literally ripped off their bodies…Force lightning burning them down as they approached. Many darkside techniques were used against the invaders, but against the generals they had little to no effect.

They saw one giant get hit with four blasts of Force lightning simultaneously from four different darkside masters, and it barely flinched from the attack before stomping up to one of them and crushing the lizard with one giant stone-like fist. The other Exerket tried technique after technique to kill the giants, but they all failed. These beasts were too alien, not possessing the flesh that most darkside techniques preyed upon. Aside from two gem-like eyes, the monsters possessed no surface features or orifices. They were simply two-legged, two armed walking masses of rock.

As the two Jedi had left the battle behind, they finally saw several of the Exerket manage to lift one of the heavy titans into the air with the Force and send it careening into a lava flow. Yet, to their dismay, half a minute later it emerged from the bank and rejoined the battle red hot, both in appearance and demeanor. It charged forward, angered by being tossed about like a toy, and crushed several underneath its pillar-like feet before smashing half a dozen battle-droids that the Exerket had deployed alongside their Force-wielders.

As interesting as the battle was, the two Jedi knew they couldn't linger. No matter who won, they couldn't be here for the climax. They studied the enemy encampment for a long time before finally picking a midsized ship, which they made a mad dash towards.

He reached it first, Force-blasting two guards fifty meters away, where they fell to the ground stunned. She joined him a few moments later and quickly joined him in the cockpit of the sleek vessel.

He tossed three more personnel her direction, and she quickly redirected them out of the ship, noticing out of the corner of her eye that he'd claimed their weapons. She reached out through the force and brought one of their blasters into her hand. She quickly found the awkward trigger and fired a few shots into the ground behind the trio as they quickly ran off, sounding the alarm.

Not wanting to kill the new arrivals anymore than he did, for they knew nothing about them, they didn't have the luxury of sticking around to make acquaintances. She guarded the bottom of the ramp while he worked feverishly to decipher the controls.

Using knowledge that he'd quickly ripped from one of the pilot's minds, he activated the ship's lift coils and gently raised it a few meters above the surface.

She pulled herself up the boarding ramp and held position just inside, still firing a few shots to discourage anyone from approaching. She held there until the main engines fired and they rocketed away from the surface.

She closed the hatch and joined him on the bridge of the midsized 'freighter,' though as to the purpose of the ship neither of them could guess, nor did they care. They were pulling away from the surface of Nathon and that was all that mattered.

That and the cluster of fighters redirecting toward their exit vector.

"Does this thing have weapons?" she asked as she frantically looked about the dash board.

He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Aft cannon. There's a forward mount that I can control from here."

Without a word she ran toward the back of the ship, found a dead end, then backtracked and eventually found an aft cupola that held the aliens' equivalent of a turbolaser. She sat down in the wide seat and tried to acquaint herself to the odd controls. She fired off a shot by accident, then quickly learned from her fortuitous mistake. Half a minute later she could move and fire the cannon, though she didn't have a clue as to what the rest of the controls were for.

"Here they come," she whispered to herself. Moving the targeting display over the approaching fighters she fired off some long range shots and saw the compact ships break formation and go evasive as a result.

_How long until hyperspace?_ she asked through their force link.

_I'll have it figured out before we're in range. Edge of the gravity well is seven minutes out. _

_Does this thing have shields?_ she asked, firing off several shots at approaching ships.

_Just over your weapon pod and mine. We'll have to make do,_ he said as he weaved the ship left and right, testing out its maneuverability…which was limited.

_Will do. Get us to hyperspace as soon as you can,_ she said as the fighters made their final approach and started firing. A blossom of pink blasts impacted the ship as she fired back larger, slower topaz-colored bolts. She nailed one ship and winged another as the fighters flew over and under the ship. She heard him fire off the forward cannon as well as several muted hull impacts.

_Looks like this ship's armor is tougher than I thought. Keep them busy back there and I think we'll make it._

She did as ordered, killing another two ships before the blackness of space became visible around the edges of her vision, as well as a small moon just on the horizon.

It wasn't until she noticed that the orbital bombardment was originating primarily from the moon that she registered the object for what it was…a giant, sphere-shaped starship.

She focused her attention back on her sites, but before she could down another of the pesky fighters the planet disappeared behind them into a blur of stars. She released the controls and leaned back in the gunner's seat, perpetually exhausted. They'd done it. They'd actually done it. She closed her eyes and opened them again, several times, not believing it. After all the long, hopeless years, they'd done the impossible.

She and Revan had finally escaped.

* * *

A week or so after the invasion of Nathon, a message packet was received in another galaxy. The recorded holograph showed one of the Exerket lizards crouched over a comm station while large banging noises were audible somewhere off screen.

_My Lords,_ it said in its native language,_ I regret to inform you that Nathon has fallen to an unknown foe. We have failed you, and will not survive the coming day. The invaders are resistant to our powers and can walk through our native lava flows. We have never encountered beasts of this type before and were caught completely unprepared._

The Exerket ground it's muzzle-like jaw, as it was about to do something it otherwise never would have.

_My masters, overcome your fear of this galaxy and return to reclaim it in the name of the Infinite Empire!_ it said moments before a large blast was heard. Its finger pressing the transmit button was the last image available in the message packet.

The wide-eyed, tall-headed alien viewing the message leaned ever so gently toward the now blank viewscreen.

_That we will._


	48. Chapter 48 Submersion

"R-12, emergency preflight," Master Rata Lesere yelled as she slid into the cockpit. "We have a battle to fight!"

The astromech droid hooted its understanding and quickly ran the _Raptor_-class starfighter through the minimum required startup before giving the Mirialan Jedi a green board. She activated the virtual interface and the camera-relayed forward hemisphere glowed before her with an image of the Jedi hangar and the two _Torch_-class fighters in front of her.

Rata kicked in the repulsorlift even as she tugged on her headset. "Control room, open hangar doors."

After an agonizingly long two-second delay the hangar ceiling parted and retracted into the temple roof, exposing the open air of Mon Calamari and the distant images of the space battle overhead.

"Rata, we have incoming. Vector 36," Bes-no Korra relayed to her from his position in the Jedi temple's central control room. "Stay clear of the guns."

"Copy that," she said as her nimble Shadow Alliance fighter darted out of the bay at a nearly vertical angle. She rolled over to horizontal as soon as she had achieved enough altitude. Off to her right she saw the new targets approaching low over the ocean.

Rata looped around on an intercept vector as the temple's defensive weaponry opened fire. Lances of red turbolaser blasts angled in at the stocky frigates as they plodded their way toward the city-like temple in an offset double line some 17 strong.

Off to the west, Rata could see more of the attack craft angling toward the nearest Mon Cal city, Yorroll, and cursed herself for not being faster. She'd been in the shower when the invasion had begun and only now had reached her fighter. Had she not been caught off guard she could have downed dozens of the slow moving ships…but now they were nearly upon them.

"Orbital fire incoming! Clear the temple!" Bes-no shouted over the comm.

Out of habit, Rata pulled off her attack run and put more distance between herself and the bulbous temple, but the warning hadn't been for her.

The two torches had just cleared the hangar bay when the first of the orbital blasts impacted the temple's deflection shield. The topaz blasts hit one of the Mon Cal designed fighters, incinerating it in a cloud of burnt shrapnel. The second Jedi-flown fighter made it out over water and clear of the barrage, but it was trailing smoke from a near hit or maybe the energy splash from the heavy turbolasers impacting against the shield. Either way, the ship wasn't combat capable.

Rata turned her raptor back toward the approaching frigates and pushed her engines to full throttle. She flew over the temple's return fire as it splashed against the hulls of the first two attack craft, neither dislodging nor damaging them.

Once over the frigates Rata inverted her fighter and strafed them from above with her lasers while her astromech tallied the damage reports on her tactical display.

"Impossible," she muttered when the diagram showed that they had no shields deployed and that her shots were doing virtually no damage. Even the turbolasers from the temple failed to penetrate their hulls, merely chewing off small chunks of their armor plating.

She bit her lip in concentration, then launched a pair of tiny torpedoes into one of the shallow craters in the lead ship's armor. The twin streaks hit dead on target, resulting in a plum of debris shooting out from the ship.

"They may be tough nerflings, but they're not impenetrable," she said to R-12, who twittered a cautious reply.

"Right…not that many torpedoes to go around," she said, looping back skyward to avoid the friendly fire zone. "Have to make do with the lasers."

Her raptor looped up and down, over and over again making strafing runs against the ponderous frigates while drawing little return fire from their gunners. After her fifteenth attack her copilot warbled a warning.

"What is it?" she asked, going evasive then leveling off. To her left she saw the Jedi temple begin to sink beneath the waves as the orbital bombardment continued. For a second she feared the worst, then realized that it was Bes-no's doing. The temple had been designed as a submersible, now it was sinking beneath the waves in an attempt to use the water as a second shield against the enemy.

Rata glanced in the direction of the Mon Cal city and saw a plume of smoke rising from Yorroll in the distance. The orbital bombardment of that city suddenly stopped, and Rata quickly spied the reason. The frigate group heading for the city had nearly arrived.

She pulled her fighter hard to port and accelerated to maximum thrust. The Jedi temple should be safe beneath the waves for the time being, but Yorroll no longer had that option. It was ten times larger than the temple, which made for a much better target from orbit. Its shields had apparently been penetrated before it could begin its descent, and the resulting surface damage prevented any future attempt at submerging the city.

As she approached from a distance, Rata noticed a swarm of Mon Cal fighters harassing the frigates as they came within a kilometer of the damaged city. A-wing, B-wing, and the newer Torch-class fighters rolled about in a giant furball above the frigate formation, trying in vain to down the attack craft before they reached the city.

Some, however, were higher up in the sky, engaging what R-12 had tagged as enemy fighters.

Knowing that their chances of stopping the transports were slim, Rata angled toward the aerial brawl and gleamed as much information as she could about her potential targets.

The enemy fighters were compact, multisided rocks, for lack of a better term. They also showed no shields, and had a slower than average rate of turn. Their top end speed was also lacking, but performance schematics compiled by her astromech showed that they had a 360-degree firing arc, which was giving the Mon Cal pilots trouble.

Rata picked out an individual fighter as she approached and shadowed it with slight redirections of her control yoke before it was finally time to roll and engage the swarm of flying rocks. She got a quick flanking opportunity and took it, glad to see hull impacts and flying armor. A thin tendril of smoke signaled penetration as the enemy fighter weaved about in a pathetic evasive maneuver.

Two quick shots later and the rock dropped to the ocean in five separate pieces. Its armor may have been tough, but its lack of speed had been its undoing.

Rata glanced at the tactical display, wondering why the Mon Cal pilots weren't downing the enemy left and right, then she belatedly remembered that she was flying a far more nimble craft, and mentally thanked Jyr for his handiwork.

Angered by the sight of ground troops boarding Yorroll from the now docked frigates, Rata went on a frenzy and cleansed the sky of the enemy fighters. She took a few potshots against the docked freighters, but couldn't get more than a fleeting glance at the troops as they entered through the breaches in the city, so she pointed her fighter to the stars and headed up out of the atmosphere.

What she entered into a handful of minutes later was no less than a floating graveyard.

Dead hulks of Rim League warships floated in lazy or decaying orbits, with very few enemy counterparts among them. Rata flitted her raptor between floating debris and pulled as much visual data as she could on the enemy fleet.

Long, needle-like battleships filled space around her, with large, boomerang-shaped heavy cruisers providing fire support against the last few allied warships still operational as they tried to limp their way out of orbit.

Given a chance, they might just make it, given the sluggish response of the enemy. Apparently their capital ships suffered from the same speed limitations as their fighters. If Rata could distract them long enough, the three remaining Rim League battleships and their light cruiser tagalong might just be able to make it out of the planet's gravity shadow…assuming that their hyperdrives were still functional.

Regardless, they deserved the chance. Rata jetted her pathetically tiny ship towards the needle and four boomerangs making chase and losing ground with every second, though their weaponry was still within kill range.

R-12 highlighted targets of opportunity on the enemy battleship and Rata picked out one. She chose one of its forward weapons batteries, which did yield its own defensive shield, a small bubble covering the battery itself.

She lined up a long assault pass and filled the tiny bubble with laser fire. Shot after shot after shot nailed the protective shield…and it absorbed them all. Finally Rata had to break off before she rammed the hull. As she exited away from the ship on the far side not a single battery attempted to target her.

Vexed, she turned back against the ship again and let fly her remaining torpedoes…but still the tiny bubble didn't break, nor did the enemy gunners even acknowledge her presence. Off in the distance one of the Mon Cal battleships lost its remaining engines amidst a large aft explosion. Its forward progress slowed and its companion vessels continued on, desperate to escape the slaughter.

Defiant to the last, the battleship rotated on thrusters and put its bulk directly in the path of the oncoming ships, hoping to buy time so they could escape as well as soaking up as much enemy fire as it could.

The boomerangs went wide to circumvent the dying ship, but the needle didn't slow. It rammed the battleship, breaking it in two, and pressed through the partially functional halves where it returned to firing on the fleeing ships. Its tip, Rata noticed with interest, showed little more than superficial damage. A few scraps and black marks were noticeable, but the hull was completely intact, including two tip mounted batteries.

Cursing under her breath she ran her fighter ahead of the enemy ships and quickly caught up with her allies. She commed the lead ship, then darted into the light cruiser's hangar bay a moment before the ship lurched into hyperspace. Within a minute the two remaining ships also made the jump, but only one of them successfully. The second battleship suffered a core overload during the jump and exploded into hyperspace, spraying debris across half a light-year as the pieces quickly reverted to realspace.

Rata tucked her fighter into the corner of the empty bay and rested her head on the back of her seat as R-12 warbled a question.

"They'll be alright beneath the surface, but they're trapped there. Mon Calamari is now enemy territory…and I don't even have a blasted clue who we're fighting!"


	49. Chapter 49

All in all, 26 major systems were invaded by those who called themselves the V'tol and offered up an ultimatum to the galaxy via the holonet, and in basic no less…_submit and serve the V'tol as slaves or suffer the annihilation of your species_.

All of the systems fought back, futilely. Kashyyyk, Corellia, Mon Calamari, Lansoor, Naboo, Csilla, Nal Hutta, Issix, Bastion, Neelasta, Kuat, Coruscant, Ricpati, Hapes, Sluis Van, Bonadan, Tey, Bilbringi, Phoff, Mustafar, Muunilinst, Cato Neimoidia, Fondor, Vittu, Rendili, Sartucal, all of them inevitably fell to the enemy…save one.

* * *

Admiral Kindo Satel was aboard the Chiss star destroyer _Fury's Ward_ when the V'tol emerged from hyperspace into orbit around Csilla and engaged the Concordat's defensive fleet.

He calmly ordered all hands to battle stations and advised the helm to reorient the _Monolith_-class star destroyer toward the incoming hostiles while maintaining position just outside their primary shipyard and the twelve incomplete warships contained within.

Issuing deployment orders through three nearby comm officers, Satel organized his 52 ships into a defensive screen around the shipyard while the rest of Csilla's defenses similarly mobilized around key orbital assets.

"Captain, ship status?"

"Turbolasers and charrics are powering up, shields are fully deployed, fighters and bombers will be ready to launch in two minutes," Orro Delsa reported from his command chair, deep within the heart of the 3,000 meter long, dome-topped star destroyer.

"Commander Chran, do we have an ID on the intruders?"

"Negative, Admiral. Their ships are not broadcasting IFF and their ship types are not recorded within our database."

Satel frowned. "Odd, how a world capable of yielding such a large fleet would go unnoticed…are there any skematical variants listed?"

"None, sir. There is zero correlation to any recorded blueprints."

The main tactical display on the _Ward_'s bridge showed the leading elements of both fleets engage each other, far from the shipyard.

"Admiral, enemy vessels are engaging _without_ shields deployed," another tan uniformed officer reported.

Now Satel was confused. He studied the battling warships with interest as he coordinated his own fleet and was dismayed to see the Chiss being overrun by the shieldless warships.

"Why are our guns not getting through?" he asked his tactical analysis team.

Two of the team, still with their eyes on their display screens, shook their heads impatiently. "The enemy armor is showing damage from our fleet's guns…but they're not having much effect. Hold on," the taller one said as she typed in some new parameters and received a statistical analysis of weapon variants.

"Initial reports show our charrics having 47% more effect than our turbolasers…but neither is doing much damage."

"Thank you for that tidbit, Major," Satel said as his ships were about to be engaged as well. "Guns, concentrate fire on individual targets…we have to punch through that armor. Scattered fire won't accomplish anything. Power distribution…give priority to the charrics over all other weapon systems. Captain, are the fighters ready to launch?"

"Most are…5th squadron was slow to respond, they're only getting to the hangar bay now."

"Launch the fighters now. Priority targets are their smaller capital ships…do we have enemy fighter contacts?"

"Minimal, Admiral. Less than 200, and they're making intercept runs against our drones."

"Hold 5th squadron in the hangar for now. Deploy them after we engage those capital ships. I want a fighter screen in case they're hiding more of their own fighters."

The Chiss Monoliths, Imperial Cs, and destroyers of Satel's command had formed a hemispherical defensive bowl around the shipyard that quickly inverted itself once the enemy's approach vector had been determined. The faster destroyers, all of 700 meters long and bristling with forward weaponry, formed the tips of three 'horns' stemming out from the _Ward_'s fixed position and angled in towards the boomerangs and spike-balls creeped towards them, firing topaz turbolasers as they came.

The Chiss warships fought hard to defend their homeworld and the all important shipyards orbiting above, but in the end they suffered the same fate as all the other systems under attack. Their defensive fleets were utterly destroyed, along with their shipyards and anything else of value in orbit, after which the precision orbital bombardment began. But that's where the similarities ended.

Dropping to Csilla's icy surface in a command level escape pod, Admiral Satel had as good a view of the catastrophe as anyone…and no one was more surprised than he when the bombardment suddenly stopped and the enemy fleet began to reorient on exit vectors.

Satel looked out the viewport at the now retreating fleet as the first wisps of Csilla's frosty atmosphere began to lick against the descending pod, wondering why the enemy would break off the attack after completely devastating their defenses…but then again, maybe that was the point. A number of Csilla's cities burned beneath them, and from the number of smoky contrails, Satel guessed that every major population center had been hit.

"Who are they?" he muttered under his breath. Sixteen hours later he would know…the entire galaxy would know, and fear of being next on the enemy's hit list would throw every populated system from the Core to the Outer Rim into a frenzied, mass panic.


	50. Chapter 50

Suddenly Jyr slid to a stop and raised his right fist, signaling Luke to do likewise.

Skywalker slowed, then walked up shoulder to shoulder with Jyr, ready for trouble but sensing none.

"Our pilot is force-sensitive," Jyr said at last.

Luke frowned, then tightened his senses on the human lifeform a few kilometers ahead of them in the forest. "I don't sense anything from her. Are you sure?"

Jyr nodded. "I don't sense anything either…she's probably untrained."

"Wait a minute," Luke said, turning to face him. "How do you know if you can't sense anything?"

"Force echo."

Luke ran the term through his memory but came up blank. "I don't remember that from the archives."

"The archives don't have very many lightside techniques. I learned force echo from my master."

"What is it?" Luke asked, curious.

Jyr hesitated while he chose his words carefully. He did that a lot when broaching new subjects with Luke. "The force has different frequencies to operate on. I know that's a very bad term to use, but it's the most descriptive. I sent out a ripple through an overlooked frequency and it bounced back from her and you, that's how I know she's force-sensitive."

"Interesting," Luke mumbled, "I wish I had a clue what you're talking about."

Jyr threw him an annoyed look then tried to explain. "You've felt the darkside before, in the presence of the Sith. Do you remember how it felt?"

Luke remembered back to the sick, unsettling feeling he'd had when he was brought before the Emperor. "Yes."

"The darkside of the Force operates as different aspects of the Force, wavelengths, frequencies, strings, call them what you want, but this is the core reason why the lightside and the darkside are incompatible."

"They're different aspects of the Force," Luke confirmed. "I already knew that."

"I'd hope so. The thing is, there are hundreds, if not thousands of different frequencies to the Force. Force echo uses one of the lightside frequencies that most Jedi are oblivious to."

"And those that use the darkside can't sense it because they operate on a different wavelength," Luke added.

"Right…now remember back to the prophecy of the chosen one. What was gained in the end?"

"The Sith were finally destroyed," Luke answered. He still hadn't gotten used to his father being referred to as the chosen one.

"What else?" Jyr asked.

"It was said that he would balance the Force."

"Why was it unbalanced?"

"The presence of the Sith brought forth a surge in the darkside that clouded the vision of the Jedi for over a millennia."

Jyr raised an eyebrow, yet said nothing in reply.

"Ah," Luke said, finally catching on. "The Jedi's vision was in a lightside frequency that was disrupted by the darkside, which reduced their force sight and precognitive abilities but didn't hinder the Sith, who worked out of another frequency."

Jyr winced. "Not quite, but close. The darkside is an abomination in the Force. It's not meant to be there, which is why the disruption is caused throughout all frequencies except those that are causing the disruption."

"Isn't that what I just said?" Luke asked, confused.

"No," Jyr said simply.

"What did I say different?"

"You forgot about the disruptions to the medium, not just the lightside."

"What medium?" Luke asked, completely lost.

Jyr looked at him as if he were a complete idiot. "The Force."

"I said the lightside of the Force," Luke reiterated.

"That's not the medium."

"What?"

"What? You're not making any sense, Luke."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "I'm not making any sense? You're not making any sense. You have the lightside and the darkside which make up the Force. If the Sith disrupt the lightside, then that leaves the darkside for them to see through, just like you and I both said."

"You're forgetting the medium again," Aer-ki reminded him, starting to get irritated

Luke ran his fingers through his hair. "What medium is there other than the lightside and the darkside?"

Aer-ki's jaw dropped. "You really don't know?"

"Know what, Ki?"

"You've never heard of the neutral Force, or the grey Jedi?"

"I've heard of the grey Jedi, but not any neutral Force."

"That's not possible. You knew force lightning when we met. That's…" Jyr waved away that thought. "Let's make this as simple as possible." He closed his eyes and levitated a small rock from near his feet in front of Luke's eyes. "What am I using to lift the rock?"

"The Force," Luke said, wondering if it was a trick question.

"What aspect of the Force?"

"The lightside," Luke answered.

Jyr dropped the rock and blew out a breath of frustration. "There is no way you can live 700 years and be that naïve."

"Will you please explain yourself," Luke said impatiently. "We have things to do."

"Nothing more important than this," Jyr said firmly. "I didn't use the lightside to lift the rock. I had to concentrate not to, I'm so used to pulling from the lightside I do it without thinking."

"You used the darkside then?" Luke asked with a weird look on his face.

Jyr glared at him. "You shouldn't have to ask that question…and if I had you would have felt it. Now, what did you feel?

"I felt you use the Force."

"Good. Now, did you feel the lightside?"

"From you, I feel it constantly."

Jyr lifted the rock again. "Now focus on my actions, not my aura. What do you feel?"

Luke stared at the rock then closed his eyes for a moment. "Nothing. Nothing but the Force."

"That," Jyr said dramatically, "is the medium. It's neither dark nor light. Now look again."

Suddenly, in Luke's senses, the energy tendril linking Jyr to the stone pulsed with the characteristic feel of the lightside…and suddenly Luke understood.

"You can use the Force without being light or dark," he said after his brief epiphany.

Jyr nodded. "Duh. I don't see how you could have come this far without knowing that. I don't know how you could have spent a month training _with_ _me_ and not know that. Everything I said must have sounded like gibberish."

"No, it wasn't," Luke said as he thought back to their time in Jyr's hidden training center. It felt like a lifetime ago. "I guess I've always known that, I'd just never made the academic connection," he said, tapping his forehead for emphasis. "What were you saying about force lightning?"

Jyr raised an eyebrow. "The first time you learn that power you typically have to draw on strong emotions to make the breakthrough. If you're not drawing from the lightside when you do it, you usually end up going darkside."

"Hmm, then that's why most Jedi didn't possess that ability. I've always wondered about that."

"The strong emotions required to learn the ability usually don't allow for a medium usage of the power, though it's technically possible," Jyr explained. "Unfortunately, most of the individuals in the Jedi Order were grey Jedi, though they didn't know it. They mistakenly believed that if they weren't using the darkside, then they were by default using the lightside."

Aer-ki let that hang in the air for a moment while Luke processed another realization.

"Anger, fear, aggression…the darkside of the Force are they," Luke repeated in a whisper. "In his own point of view."

"They aren't, actually," Jyr said, wondering if they were going to have to retrace another old lesson."

"Yoda," Luke explained. "Yoda pounded that phrase into my skull during my training on Dagobah…and it's given me nothing but trouble ever since. But now I understand why he did it. He was trying to protect me."

"But he still lied," Jyr noted.

"Yes, he did. But he'd probably say that from his own point of view he was telling the truth."

"Delusions do not truth make," Jyr said pithily.

"Yoda either didn't understand or he specifically turned me away from anything potentially dangerous for fear that I would turn to the darkside like my father did. He probably didn't think he had a choice, given my truncated training."

Jyr frowned. "How truncated?"

Luke winced, knowing his friend's likely reaction. "A few weeks."

"Unbelievable," Jyr said shaking his head. "You were more on your own than I was then."

"Yes and no. He gave me a few more lessons after his death, but for the most part I had to piece together what I found or discovered in my own training..."

Jyr raised a hand to stop Luke from going any further.

"Whoa, wait a minute. You talked to him after his death?"

"Yes."

"What was he, a ghost?" Aer-ki said sarcastically.

"Yes," Luke said, suddenly feeling the irony of the situation. "You didn't know?"

"Know what?"

"You don't know about force ghosts do you?" Luke asked, reveling in each word. It wasn't very often that he found himself lecturing his friend.

"Luke, this is no time for a joke."

Skywalker shook his head, only half managing to keep a smile from his lips. "Both of my masters, Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda became force ghosts after their death and guided me at select moments, though I haven't had any contact with them for over 600 years. If I ever see Yoda again, we're going to have a very long talk about his _point of view_…"

"Neither the archives nor my master's teachings said anything about Jedi coming back from the dead."

"Well, they didn't have a body. Actually, it probably had something to do with their bodies disappearing at death. They never really explained it to me, so I thought it was something common in the old days."

"Not as far as I know," Jyr said, thinking hard. "Do you have any way of contacting them?"

"No. I've tried several times in the past, but either they can't hear me, can't talk to me, or won't talk to me."

"Interesting," Jyr mumbled as he ran his fingers through his hair, much like Luke had done earlier. "And you said their bodies faded away at death?"

"Do you know something?" Luke asked.

"No, I don't think so. Something about it rings true though. Were they the only two you know of?"

"My father also appeared alongside them, but he never spoke to me…and his body didn't disappear. I burnt it on Endor."

"I really wish you'd told me about this before, Luke. I have a feeling it's important."

"Sorry. I would have if I didn't think you already knew. I suppose I should have asked when I didn't find anything about it in the archives."

Jyr waved away the apology. "You were looking for new information, not confirmation on old. Regardless, I'm not planning on dying any time soon," Jyr stood up a little straighter and reached out with his senses. "Our pilot is on the move. We need to get to her before we're forced to make a major detour," he said as he slowly moved forward into a run.

"One more thing," Luke asked a step behind him. "If you're using a certain ability, does it make any difference which side you pull the power from?"

Though Luke couldn't see it, Aer-ki smiled as they ran through the forest. "Now that sounds like the 700 year old Jedi I know. It does, actually. Some powers considered to be neutral gain extra attributes when you channel the darkside through them, same with the lightside. Also, the more extreme your alignment the greater your available power, which is why so many Jedi have mistaken the darkside as stronger than the lightside."

"Because they weren't really using the lightside," Luke continued, catching on to the subtlety. "They were using the medium and mistook it for the lightside."

"Exactly," Jyr confirmed, picking up the pace. "And centuries of Jedi doctrine have suffered because of it."


	51. Chapter 51

When Luke and Jyr got within a few hundred meters of the female pilot they discovered a problem…they couldn't find her.

_I sense her over there, in that ravine, but I can't spot her_, Luke said through their well practiced force link.

_Go invisible and follow my flank. I think I know what's going on, but if I'm wrong be ready for trouble_, Jyr said as he jumped over a fallen log and jogged towards the pilot's presence near a small creek at the bottom of the ravine.

Luke let him get a few steps ahead before jumping over the log himself and turning right, running a few dozen meters then paralleling Jyr safely hidden beneath his force camouflage. He had to take a more measured path down, making sure he didn't disturb the underbrush and give away his position, but Jyr wasn't in a rush and Luke managed to keep up with him.

When they came within twenty meters of where the pilot should have been Jyr finally spoke.

"Stand to, pilot. I'm Shadow Alliance. Show yourself."

No response came. Jyr stared directly at the spot he sensed the woman and raised an eyebrow. "That's an order, Lieutenant."

Luke heard a faint sigh, and suddenly an image shimmered to life in front of Jyr. The young blond-haired woman showed a bloody splotch on her forehead and a mechanical belt around her narrow waist…a stealth field generator.

"Who are you?" she asked pointedly, "and how did you know where I was?"

"I'm Warlord Aer-ki Jyr," he said simply.

The pilot's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't recognize you. What are you doing here?"

Jyr gestured to the belt around her waist. "I'm the one who requested the stealth field generators. Do you have both of them?"

"Yes, sir," she said, pulling off her pack. She pulled out another identical belt for him to inspect. It floated out of her hand and into his.

Her jaw dropped momentarily, then realization hit her. "So you _are_ a Jedi. I'd heard rumors, but…"

"That I am," he said, waving to his right. After a brief shimmer of his own Luke appeared. "This is Jedi Skywalker…and your name and rank, soldier?"

She straightened. "Lieutenant Siley Utrel. Level 7 pilot."

"At ease, Lieutenant. We found your shuttle, your copilot's body, and the sensor records of your flight in. Anything else you can report?"

"Whoever the enemy is, they deployed interdictors the moment they arrived insystem. We didn't have a viable exit vector, so we decided to head to ground, but their damn fighters got to us first. I managed to put the shuttle down in one piece, but I didn't have a choice of landing zones so we ended up nearby one of their landers. It wasn't long before their scouts arrived and I decided to bug out."

As he listened, Jyr slid the belt around his waist and tested the cloaking field. Satisfied, he turned his attention back on the slightly shorter pilot. "You did well to survive the crash, and I'm glad you had the sense to grab the generators. How's your head?"

She visibly hesitated, wondering how much to complain. "Not good. I get dizzy every hour or so and have to sit down."

"Where were you heading?" Jyr asked as he walked forward and laid his hand on her forehead.

Taken slightly aback, and talking from under his arm, she mumbled incoherently. "Ah, um, I didn't really think that far ahead. I just wanted to get as far away from their ground troops as I could. I've got enough rations for several days." She winced as if in pain, but didn't move. "What are you doing, sir?"

"You have a concussion. I'm trying to stabilize you enough that you can travel uninterrupted, and I'm failing grandly. Luke, some help here."

Skywalker walked up beside them and laid his hand on the back of her head as Jyr pulled aside a few steps. Luke closed his eyes in concentration. Her wound was significant.

"We need to get you into a bacta tank. I don't know how you're still standing."

She blinked away fresh tears when he released her head. "I took a stim back in the shuttle, but I think it's starting to wear off."

Jyr stared at her for another moment then signaled Luke, who looked at him silently for half a minute…then suddenly Jyr took off running into the trees.

"What's going on?" Siley asked.

"He's going on ahead to the nearest village. We're going to follow him at a slower pace."

"What's the rush?"

Luke winced. "You're already in shock. If we don't get you into a bacta tank soon, you're going to be in trouble."

"Meaning I'll be dead?"

"Possibly," Luke admitted. "But I'm not going to let that happen. Jedi know a few tricks to deal with concussions. I'll get you to the village alive, even if I have to carry you."

Siley frowned. "I'm not that bad…am I?"

Luke nodded. "You're numbed up pretty good, either from the stim or the severity of the wound."

"What if there isn't a bacta tank in the village? Or what if the enemy is already there?"

"That's why Jyr went on ahead. He's going to deal with all of that before we get there. Now, we need to get moving."

"I don't suppose there's anything you can do about this dizziness?" she asked.

Luke smiled faintly and touched two fingers to her temple. "Better?"

"Now I feel sick to my stomach, but at least I'm not going to lose my balance. Thanks."

"Come," Luke said, putting his hand on her shoulder and nudging her in the direction of Jyr's fading presence. "Move slowly, but consistently, and you'll make it."

* * *

With the pilot's life on the line Jyr pushed himself harder than he'd done traveling with Luke, both in the name of speed and because Luke wasn't around to slow him down. When moving in a party, the group moved at the speed of the slowest individual, and while Luke was no slouch, Jyr had always been faster.

The Jedi moved in a blur, blowing through light underbrush rather than circumventing it. Normally his armor would have protected his skin from the cuts and abrasions…without it, he tolerated the stinging damage in favor of a quicker ETA.

Speed…without it the pilot was going to die. Her head wound was beyond his abilities to heal and should have rendered her unconscious. He'd seen a few situations when extreme shock resulted in crystal clarity rather than a coma, but this was the most dramatic example to date.

He'd explained to Luke the need to keep her from unnumbing and feeling the full affects of her injury. Her hyper-imposed self control was the only thing keeping her alive, and if she slipped out of it her vitals would crash and she'd be dead within an hour.

He had to find a bacta tank, preferably, or some type of advanced medical gear, maybe a droid, that could stabilize her condition. Above and beyond that, all three of them needed a way off planet. Without his ships in orbit he had no way of contacting his fleets and warning them of the new threat that he was certain was attacking elsewhere across the galaxy. Of all the times to be caught incommunicado.

When Jyr reached the location of the village he found himself standing at the bottom of some very large, very tall tree trunks, atop of which sat the Wookiee village and the sound of blaster fire.

Aer-ki looked around for a way up, quickly finding a thick vine that extended at least half the distance to the treetops. He freehand climbed up the vine which was too far away from the trunk to get his feet on. Halfway up he used the force to flick the 'on' switch of his stealth generator. After a whispered hiss, all that was visible in the dim light was an oddly pulsating vine.

A quarter of the distance from the top, the vine separated into tendrils that latched onto three different trunks, ending his quick route up. Aer-ki pulled himself across the shortest tendril and latched onto the thick bark of the tree with his fingers and thin inner shoes that had inserted into his armored boots.

While not made for climbing, the small, flexible shoes proved adequate to grip the ridges in the trunk. Though it was slow going, Jyr methodically made progress upward into the 'foundations' of the village.

He found a crook of a two-meter wide branch and rested there for a moment. He pulled his lightsaber out of his waistband and ignited the white blade.

A chunk of wood dropped past him and impacted the forest floor with a loud thud after a four second delay. Jyr kept cutting out chunks of the platform until he finally had carved a one person tunnel up into the village.

He peeked his head out of the hole and discovered that he was inside one of the hut-like buildings. He lept up and brandished his other lightsaber. If he had to fight he didn't want it sticking out of his pants in such an awkward fashion.

Outside he heard more blaster fire…then silence. He moved to the door and quietly opened it. With both blades extinguished and his stealth field rematerialized around him, he snuck out onto the main platform that served as both road and walkway.

Many bodies littered the 'street,' both Wookiee and alien. Off to the right a large group of Wookiees were kneeling together with their hands bound behind their backs…and looming over them was one of the stone giants.

Its attention wasn't on them, however. Its gem-like eyes were glaring past Jyr to his left. He turned his attention there likewise and saw two live Wookiees amidst the fallen bodies of two dozen more, fighting with blades against eight of the 'headless' aliens.

Jyr didn't hesitate. He ran towards the fight in his cloak of invisibility and came up behind the invaders unnoticed.

Both white blades flashed into existence and the cloak dropped as Jyr sliced through two of the creature's midsections simultaneously. All four pieces dropped to the ground.

Before the others could react, Jyr cut them all down. It felt good to slice through a target so easily after dealing with the annoying droids and their resistant Attonyyk armor.

The Wookiees roared in approval, including one of the bound ones at the other end of the platform. The giant singled out that Wookiee and crushed its body flat with one massive fist. The others next to the victim scooted as far as they dared away from the gore as the giant retracted its fist and roared.

Dozens of aliens emerged from various buildings in response to its call. Some carried handheld weapons, others had them strapped onto forearms or wings. Two muscle-bound aliens appears to be unarmed save for a pair of savage looking spiked gloves.

"Find cover," Jyr told the Wookiees a split second before the alien hoard opened fire.


	52. Chapter 52

Eight stone/metal spikes flew through the air towards Jyr, four of which missed wide. Of the others, three he dodged and one he 'deflected' into the sky.

Deflected was an overstatement. Upon impact the projectile knocked his blade backward, half melting in the process. A fine spray of molten material flew past his blade and caught his left shoulder, stinging and clawing with a fiery pain.

Aer-ki reacted instantly. Even as more spikes erupted from the enemy's handheld launchers Jyr created a shallow force bubble on the surface of his exposed shoulder and expanded it outward in a violent blast. It ripped apart the left half of his shirt, but succeeded in removing the hot shrapnel.

He ducked another pair of spikes then jumped straight up into the overhanging branches, bounced off one of the limps, and landed in the midst of the alien hoard.

His white blades flashed with unrecognizable speed. Limbs and weapons fell to the ground while white blaster bolts were redirected up and away, often in the direction of the stone giant, which absorbed the hits without incident.

Before the aliens could react Jyr went on the run, zigzagging back and forth, not letting the enemy anticipate his next move. One by one he cut down the enemy troops, finishing with an overhead jump slash that cleaved a flying enemy in two down its spine. That left only the giant remaining.

Jyr backtracked as it approached, wanting to get it as far from the captive Wookiees as possible, then he darted forward quicker than any Human or droid was capable of.

He angled off to the right, slashing through the giant's leg with his blade…or so he had hoped. He stopped for a microsecond on the other side, then darted back in on a different line, seeing the thin cut that his blade had made. It glowed like molten rock.

His second cut came on the opposite leg, as well as the third. The fourth returned to the original cut in an attempt to expand upon the damage, with little success.

The giant's fist came down on the fifth pass, breaking through the wood planks and leaving a splintery crater in the deck. Jyr made note of it and adjusted his line of attack. He went through several dozen dash and slashes, doing little more than scratching the behemoth.

Adjusting his tactic, he got behind the creature and lept up onto its vertical back, using force grip techniques that he'd practiced many times on the obstacle course. He got a one handed reverse hold on one lightsaber while he flicked the other clear of the fight. He drove it hard into the giant's back, eliciting a rumbling roar and twist that nearly threw him clear.

Aer-ki held on, slowly sinking the blade through the hard exterior until suddenly it slid in cleanly, eliciting a violent tremor that knocked him free of the giant and his imbedded lightsaber.

He hit the deck and rolled into the spiked crater, cutting his bare arm. He jerked upright and looked back at the giant desperately trying to remove the lightsaber that was still in its back. Aer-ki quickly pulled out two finger-length splinters from his shoulder and reached out with the force as he felt the warm flow of fresh blood cover his arm.

His second lightsaber jumped into his hand a moment before he lept at the wriggling, but still very much alive stone giant. He landed on its head and drove the second saber into its neck, cutting only a centimeter per second. A blurry stone fist rose up and smacked itself in the neck, nearly smashing him in the crevice.

Jyr jumped up again and again until he got a second hole through its tough 'skin.' Now he held onto both pommels, his feet planted on the creature's back, and rotated them around through its innards.

It roared again then fell onto its back, prompting Jyr to jump clear, but instead of lying still it rolled onto its knees and swiped at Jyr again with its droid-sized fist.

_What does it take to kill these things_, he thought as he deactivated the lightsabers and pulled them away from the giant. He was about to make another round of cuts to its legs when he noticed the planks underneath its feet were on fire.

It roared and charged him, but he easily sidestepped and got behind it again where he saw rivulets of what looked like molten lava spilling out of the holes in its back. They cooled to glossy black a few seconds after they left its body, and by the rate they were spilling out Jyr figured it wouldn't take long before the giant finally fell.

He was right. Two minutes later, after dodging some desperate final swipes, the rock monster froze in place, half standing, half kneeling. Jyr could sense its lifeforce slip away, leaving its corpse as a gigantic stone statue situated dead center in the village.

The two armed Wookiees tentatively emerged from their hiding places then, realizing that the danger had truly passed, thanked Jyr profusely as the three of them unbound the captives. Jyr delicately used his lightsaber to remove the stone-like shackles while the two Wookiees used their metal blades.

"Can any of you understand basic?" Jyr asked. While he could understand the Wookiee's language he couldn't produce the range of sounds necessary to speak it.

Several of the Wookiees roared an affirmative while many more nodded. "Do you have a bacta tank or any other medical facilities here?"

One of the darkest furred Wookiees stepped forward and uttered a complex string of grunts, growls, and high pitched reverberations.

"That'll do," Jyr said as he glanced around the village and laid eyes on the distant landing pad. "What's the condition of those ships?"

Another Wookiee, this one shorter, rumbled off an apology.

"Get at least one of them working. Prioritize flight, hyperspace engines, shields, and weapons in that order. I also need one of you to show me to the med facility. I have an injured soldier on the way here along with another Jedi, and we'll need to treat her immediately."

The Wookiees exchanged hopeful looks, then about half of them rushed off to the landing pad while the others waited where they were, not sure what to do.

Jyr sensed their confusion. "The rest of you, attend to your wounds then establish a sentry line around the village. I want to know the moment more of the enemy comes within sight. I want eyes only. Do not engage them. Let me and Skywalker handle that."

Several Wookiees roared in unison.

Jyr half smiled. "Yes, I'm referring to Luke Skywalker. He's bringing in the wounded soldier. He should be here within a few hours. We'll need some type of lift rigged up or one of those ships fixed in order to get the soldier up here."

Several of the Wookiees volunteered themselves for that assignment and ran off enthusiastically. Many more split up, climbing up and down trees as they scurried to form a proper perimeter. Jyr left that task in their capable hands and had the few remaining Wookiees lead him to their small med bay. Inside he found a vertical treatment tube large enough to accommodate a Wookiee as well as several lateral beds and a host of diagnostic treatment, including a medical droid.

However, unlike a bacta tank, the inside of the tube didn't glow blue. Instead, it shown a deep green. The Wookiees in this village used Ryll.


	53. Chapter 53

By the time Luke and Siley got to the village the Wookiees had fashioned an improvised basket wench to pull the pair of them up from the forest floor through the hole that Jyr had cut in the understructure. Aer-ki met them there and quickly took a stammering Siley to the med facility.

Without time to heed social taboos the two Jedi cut her out of her clothing, attached the breathing apparatus securely around her head, then delicately dunked her in the emerald fluid. The nearby Wookiee medic input several commands into the tank's control panel, which activated the interior lights and began to administer secondary medications through her mask.

A diagram of her slim form appeared on the side of the tank and monitored her vitals as well as recorded the location and interaction rate between the Ryll and her body's cellular structure. A large portion of her head glowed red on the diagram.

The medic rumbled a short line of invective.

"We know it's bad," Luke answered, "how long do you think it will take for her to recover?"

The Wookiee cocked his head askew then whined a reply.

"The ship should be ready before that," Jyr commented as he glanced at her nude form inside the glowing tube. "We may have to pull her out prematurely. Is this tank mobile?"

The Wookiee answered a short negative.

"Prepare as much portable gear as you can to treat her condition. Inform us of any change in her vitals," Jyr said before walking outside and glancing down the walkway to the landing pad. Luke followed him out.

"That was too close."

Jyr glanced at him. "You got her here in one piece. Thanks, by the way."

"No problem. Where do we stand on getting out of here?"

Jyr pointed to his right. "We have three hopefuls being worked on now, but we've really only got one chance, that Corellian cutter that's been serving the Wookiees as a storage shed. The other two ships have been cannibalized for various parts and I doubt they can be made serviceable again."

"What about the enemy's transport?" Luke asked.

"There is none. The Wookiees say a large ship dropped them off up here then landed elsewhere, so that's not an option…and the nearest village is too far away to consider."

"How much time do you think we've got before they send reinforcements?"

Jyr frowned. "I don't know. I've deployed a sentry line to watch for their return, but it appears they're quite busy elsewhere," he said, signaling for Luke to follow him.

He led him into a nearby building/hut where the enemy's personal weapons and other gear had been gathered and laid out for inspection. Luke immediately noticed the collection of comm devices being dissected on the far table.

"We've been able to pull some preliminary position data from their communications traffic. It appears they're attacking all over the planet. Snippets of Wookiee comm chatter have confirmed this, but most of their communications grid has gone dark. We did, however, intercept an ultimatum delivered by the enemy, in basic, demanding the surrender and submission of the Wookiees to the V'tol or they would suffer the annihilation of their species."

"The V'tol," Luke said as he ran the name through his memory. "Never heard of them before, but if they speak basic then they're probably from some part of this galaxy."

Jyr shook his head. "More likely they studied us for a few years before they attacked. The Insectoids want us for food, but if these V'tol want slaves then they'll have to communicate with them."

"The fact that they transmitted in basic means they're after more than just the Wookiees," Luke added ominously. "We've got to get out of here and warn the rest of the galaxy."

Jyr sighed. "I know. We're working on it."

* * *

Three and a half days later the Wookiees sighted a V'tol scout in the forest, which Jyr made quick work of, but the spiked brute meant that their time here was almost up, and the cutter was barely spaceworthy. Never the less, they couldn't risk another battle that could permanently damage the spacecraft, so they loaded up all the villagers and enough mechanical and technical gear so that they could continue their repairs enroute inside what once had been a Corellian Alliance patrol ship.

At some seventy meters long, the _Nova 68_ provided adequate space for the 64 surviving Wookiees, two Jedi, and one unconscious pilot that was still recovering under the medic's watchful care. What the ship didn't currently provide for were weapons or shields, which the mechanics were hurriedly trying to repair or freshly install from the cobble of equipment they had ransacked from the village.

With Jyr at the helm, the stubby cutter lifted off from the landing pad and drifted over the treetops to the south, scraping bottom every now and then as they searched for a suitable clearing to put down in and continue repairs. As of now they were nothing more than target practice should they try and break orbit. It would take at least another two days to get the shields working again, which was the minimum Jyr demanded before trying to make the run to hyperspace.

A few hundred klicks later he spied a narrow ravine with a dry gravel bed just wide enough to accommodate the ship. He scraped and broke branches on the way down due to a misfiring thruster pack, but eventually the landing skids made contact and the little junk pile settled into its camouflaged niche.

"Luke, perimeter sweep. I'll guard the ship while the Wookiees work."

Luke nodded once, popped the boarding hatch, and ran off in the nighttime forest. Jyr dropped a meter and a half to the ground then backed up against the slowly lowering ramp. He settled down into a relaxed hunch and began the long, monotonous task of guard duty.

* * *

Over the skies of a captured Coruscant a tiny enemy transport emerged from hyperspace and joined the mass of V'tol ships engaged in the chaotic orbital cleanup tasked with clearing battle debris before it fell down onto the planet and caused further damage. The V'tol wanted the planet as intact as possible, and had already begun integrating the planet's infrastructure and population into their slave workforce.

"General, we have a problem," Revan said absentmindedly as the pair of Jedi starred out over what had once been the capitol of the Republic.

"What now?" she asked, starring in awe at the assembled enemy fleet and the giant spherical ship that hung perilously low on the orbital track.

"I don't know," he said as he pulled up the ship's navigational map. It had major hyperspace routes listed for a hundred or so planets, but most of the galaxy was inaccessible. "It's possible that all of these systems are under enemy control."

"Or soon will be," she said ominously. "This invasion is only a few days old. The enemy fleet is still holding in blockade formation. If they'd secured the surface by now that wouldn't be necessary."

Revan nodded in agreement as he scrolled through the short list of systems. "Should we flip a coin?"

She reached over and tapped the glowing dot that represented Kuat. "If we have to run through the entire list we might as well start with the ones nearby."

"Plotting course," Revan said as he flipped the ship around and gently nudged it away from Coruscant's gravity well. After a few moments the alien navicomputer signaled it was ready and the two wayward Jedi jumped back into hyperspace.


	54. Chapter 54 Convergence

"Revan, we have to face the possibility that we _are_ the last of the Jedi," the Exile said as they watched the blue/white swirl of hyperspace out the forward viewport.

Revan shook his head. "Just because Coruscant is in enemy hands doesn't mean that all the Jedi are dead. The odds of every single Jedi being on Coruscant at the same time are astronomically low. You know that."

She turned her head towards him, resulting in a cascade of long, gray hair off her thin shoulders. "That's not what I meant. What if there is no Order to return to?"

He blinked. Oddly enough that idea hadn't occurred to him. "Then we find the Republic and offer our assistance…and if there's no more Republic, then we find some faction to align ourselves with. There's a war to be fought, General. We've already personally seen seven major systems overrun. Someone will want our help."

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you really ready to jump back into a war after what we've been through?"

Revan sighed. "No, but I don't think the galaxy can wait. Whoever this new threat is, they're more formidable than any foe we've fought."

"Even our captors?"

"Possibly," Revan admitted.

They sat in silence for the remainder of their journey to the 12th location on their short list: Kashyyyk.

* * *

"More of the same," Revan said regrettably when they emerged from hyperspace to discover Kashyyyk in enemy hands as well. "Onto Meltonn then," he said as he plotted their next jump.

"Wait," the Exile whispered. Her eyes were all but closed to slits. "Someone is here. I sense two presences, strong in the lightside, on the surface of the planet."

Revan concentrated for a moment, then picked up the faint trace of one force-sensitive. "You're right, but I only feel one."

She frowned. "There _were_ two, but now I'm only sensing one as well."

"They may be under attack," Revan offered, then said no more.

"Let's risk it," she said, grasping the helm controls. "We need to find out what's happened in our absence, and if there are Jedi down there then they're probably trapped. We at least have a ship to offer them."

Revan nodded. "I'll man the aft turret. Try to blend in with the orbital traffic as much as possible. We don't want to attract attention."

* * *

It had been fifteen days since Luke, Jyr, and the Wookiees had moved the ship into the forest, and fifteen agonizing days trying to get the stubborn shield generators to deploy their protective energy field. All of the _Nova_ _68_'s other major systems had been repaired to Jyr's satisfaction, but he didn't dare make a run for orbit without the shields.

Their luck had held out, and their cozy little ravine had escaped enemy detection, but both Jedi were growing impatient. They knew that the longer they sat here the more of the galaxy was being conquered, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.

Siley, however, had turned into the one positive they had going for them. She had regained consciousness after a few more days of minor treatments and had kept both Jedi slightly distracted as they began to explain the Force and the ways of the Jedi to her. She had immediately been receptive, and with Luke's well practiced instruction had managed to nudge a small metal shard with the Force.

Siley had also been forced into another lesson, given her circumstances. Ever since being dunked in the Ryll tank she'd been without clothes, and had been considerably embarrassed even after Luke gave her his shirt to wear, along with a lesson in false modesty and matters of perception.

She'd eventually accepted her pant-less state and had stopped hiding behind various crates in the cargo hold, but she still seemed a bit sheepish around Jyr, who was technically her commanding officer. However, the 'openness' of her situation seemed to assist her attempts to feel the Force around her, given that the physical boundaries between self and environment had also created a subconscious distinction between the two that had been removed along with her clothing.

After a few days Siley would find a private corner of the ship and remove Luke's shirt so that she was completely nude when she practiced the simply drills that he'd given her, but whenever she was around someone she would cling to the little cover that the skin-tight black top provided.

Had the crew been made up of Humans rather than Wookiees and Jedi this would have been a problem, but since Wookiees disliked clothing and Jedi weren't affected by social taboos there hadn't been any trouble. However, as soon as they got off planet they'd have to find her some clothing before she would voluntarily leave the ship.

Luke was with Siley underneath the ship, using the Force to move the dust around on a bare spot of the forest floor when Jyr's presence suddenly disappeared from Luke's mind.

_What is it?_ Luke asked through their force link as he expanded his senses.

_Someone's in orbit. And they're not Jedi_, he answered back.

Luke further expanded his senses as Siley stared at him. He'd stopped talking mid sentence. Up, a few degrees above the eastern horizon he sensed two pinprick presences, strong with the Force. _How do you know they're not Jedi?_

_Too strong. Not even Kas would be detectable at this range._

Luke frowned and concentrated harder. _I don't detect the darkside._

_Nor the lightside_, Jyr countered. _I have no idea who they might be. Do you?_

Luke shook his head, despite the fact that Jyr was several kilometers away on perimeter patrol. _Not a clue. I thought you and I were the only ones in that power range._

"Luke, what's wrong?" Siley asked. He held up a hand, signaling her to wait.

_That's what I thought too. What do you suppose they're doing with the V'tol?_

_I don't know, but it's bad news for us. If we can detect them, then they can probably detect us, well, me at least._

_I think they already have_, Jyr said. _They're getting closer._

_Should we run or wait it out?_

Jyr didn't respond for a time. Then reluctantly he said, _Wait it out, but run off into the forest. If they're following your presence it'd be best if we didn't lead them to the ship._

_Good idea. _Luke turned and faced Siley. "We have incoming. There're force-sensitives tracking my presence. I'm going to lead them off into the forest."

"What should I do?" Siley asked.

"Take cover in the tree line, but stay near the ship. Tell the Wookiees to do the same," Luke said as he scurried out from under the ship and took off running into the forest.

Siley walked out in his wake and tugged her shirt a little lower on her hips. "I need a weapon," she mumbled before walking up the boarding ramp and into the ship where the Wookiees were still working on the shield generators. She relayed Luke's message and grabbed a blaster carbine from the pile of weapons the Wookiees had brought onboard.

Leaving the ship behind, Siley and the Wookiees joined the others on guard in the forest and waited for trouble.


	55. Chapter 55

_How do we look?_ Revan asked telepathically from the aft cupola.

_The immediate area is clear_, she reported as they dropped their stolen ship into the atmosphere. _Nothing's moving to intercept…yet._

_I sense our contact is on the move._

_Don't worry, I'm on it,_ she assured him as the friction of reentry began to buffet the ship.

_Coming in a bit hot, aren't we?_ Revan asked. _This ship doesn't have shields._

_I'm watching the temp gauge. I want to press the armor a little before I back off the descent._

_Just so long as we don't melt or break up. _

The Exile frowned in the pilot's seat. _We may have been out of it for a long time, but I still remember how to fly._

_Very well, General. Proceed at your own discretion. _

* * *

Twenty uninterrupted minutes later the captured V'tol transport bottomed out its descent just above the treetops and glided north toward the unnaturally strong lightside presence still on the move. Revan stood by the gangway as he sensed for signs of battle, but could find none locally. The rest of the planet was in turmoil, but this area of Kashyyyk was quiet…aside from the thick cluster of lifeforms inhabiting the forest below.

The Human's lifesign would have stood out amongst the throng regardless, but the potent lightside signature made it impossible to miss at this range. As the Exile began to slow the ship, Revan touched the control panel and lowered the boarding ramp. When the trees below stopped moving he stepped outside into freefall.

Using his well practiced Force Drift he restricted his fall to a controlled descent and angled east towards a small break in the canopy. He slid through without incident, then found himself tangled in the branches below.

He got a foothold on one and caught his balance, then began to hop from branch to branch as he gradually made his way towards the forest floor. He dropped the last ten meters directly, crouching on impact to fully absorb the landing.

Revan stood up and turned to his left…where he saw a lone, shirtless figure standing far off amongst the trees looking back at him. Without warning a blue blade shot out of nowhere beside him and crossed perilously close to his throat.

"Don't move."

Startled by getting caught off guard, Revan couldn't find his voice for a moment. After quickly gathering his wits he turned his neck ever so slowly toward the voice.

"Relax, Jedi. I'm on your side," he said as their eyelines locked. The man holding the lightsaber to his throat twitched in surprise when he saw his face.

"How are you still alive, Revan?" he asked, his lightsaber moving even closer.

"Long story," Revan said, being extra careful to form his words so they didn't push his throat into the blade.

Luke ran up beside them, his yellow blade springing to life and pointing toward Revan from the opposite side. "What do we have, Ki?"

"A traitor," he said simply.

Luke studied his face closely. "I don't know him."

"You've seen his face in the archives. He's supposed to have died millennia ago."

Luke took a second look at the man when realization dawned on him. "Revan?"

"Who's your friend in the ship?" Jyr asked.

"Rey-len Tarren," he whispered.

"Ki," Luke said, motioning with his hand.

Jyr pulled his blade back half a meter, but kept the tip pointed at Revan's throat.

"What are you doing with the V'tol?" Luke asked directly.

"Is that what they're called? We stole one of their ships when we escaped," Revan said as he mentally relayed the conversation to Tarren.

"Escaped from where?" Jyr asked.

"A planet in the unknown regions called Nathon."

Luke and Jyr exchanged glances. "Nathon, you say. And why did the Rakata imprison you?" Luke asked.

Revan blinked in surprise. "There are no Rakata on Nathon. Why would you ask that? How do you know of the planet?"

"You're familiar with the star map on this planet," Luke explained. "With some hacking we obtained a map of the former Rakatan Empire. A planet called Nathon was the one and only entry still labeled as active."

Revan processed that for a moment, but it was Tarren that put the pieces together first. "Nathon is populated by a reptilian species known as the Exerket. We surmised they had other masters, but we never suspected the Rakata. It does answer a few questions though."

"Time for that long story you mentioned," Jyr said icily.

Revan sighed heavily, then began to recount his days in the Mandalorian Wars, their subsequent excursion into the unknown regions, their initial capture by the Exerket, his and Malak's conversion and release, his quest for the Star Forge, his corrupted efforts as a Sith Lord, his loss of memory and second Jedi training, the eventually recovery of his memory, his futile attempt to destroy the Exerket, his second imprisonment, Tarren's futile rescue attempt, their attaining self-sufficiency and enduring thousands of years of torment up until the V'tol invasion and their fortuitous escape.

Throughout Revan's tale Luke and Jyr had a continuous side conversation telepathically that revolved around one final conclusion: if they had attained self-sufficiency then they couldn't be darkside.

Jyr deactivated his blade, quickly followed by Luke. "If your captured ship only has a handful of destination plots, then I think we're better off taking the cutter, if we can ever get the shields working."

"Tarren can probably help with that," Revan offered. "She's a wizard with tech. How far away is your ship?"

"Far enough that we could use a lift," Luke suggested.

Revan's face blanked for a moment, then he gestured to the west. "She's going to wedge the ship into the upper canopy. We'll have to climb up."

With perfect timing a loud series of crunches could be heard, but not seen, nearby. After a few seconds they faded out and Revan jogged off into the trees. Luke and Jyr followed, both surprised by his agonizingly slow speed.

Their climb up was also slow, but they made it into the ship without incident. The threesome headed forward into the cockpit where Luke nearly backstepped in surprise. Unlike Revan, his companion showed an incredible amount of physical damage and decay. Luke found her face unrecognizable, even though her history was as well documented in the archives as Revan's.

Jyr sensed his hesitation and stepped forward, directing her towards their hidden ship. Given the smaller size of the V'tol vessel, Tarren was able to slide it between the trees and land behind the Corellian cutter without too much trouble.

Jyr left the ship first and quickly calmed the enraged Wookiees who were busily firing their hand weapons at the ship's nearly impervious hull armor. Luke then introduced the pair and sent Tarren off with the Wookiees to work on the shield generators. Jyr took Revan off into the forest for a continuation of their discussion while Luke walked off into another section of the forest where he found Siley hiding behind a thick tree.

"I don't suppose there are any extra clothes on the new ship?" she asked bashfully.

"We can look," Luke offered, suppressing an amused grin, "if you're willing to let go of your tree."

She grimaced. "Sorry. I got used to you two and the Wookiees…"

"Don't look at the situation as a problem," Luke instructed, "look at is as an opportunity to test yourself. What they think of you doesn't matter…it's how you handle yourself that counts."

"Right," she said, blowing out a frustrated breath as she stepped out from behind the tree. "You probably want your shirt back."

Luke glanced down at the few cuts and scrapes his torso had received from running through the forest bare-chested. "I'm fine as is."


	56. Chapter 56

"Where is the Jedi council seated now?" Revan asked.

"Mon Calamari," Jyr answered as they continued their hour long hike into the forest. "But the Order has other temples spread across the galaxy. The one on Mon Cal is the one known to the public."

"Has there ever been discussion about moving the council back to Coruscant?"

"Not that I know of. Coruscant became an independent entity a few centuries back and refused to align itself with any galactic faction. It's still a major financial and industrial hub, but by no means the center of galactic civilization that it once was."

"What's galactic center now?"

"The galaxy is fractured into several constituent pieces, each with a capitol system vying for that title. Corellia comes closest, in terms of military defenses at least."

"And the V'tol ran right over them," Revan said disbelievingly. "I wonder how many others have fallen."

"We'll find out once we get off planet and I can link up with my forces," Jyr said, glancing back over his shoulder. "But before we do that, there's something that has to happen first, and I think we're far enough away from the others now."

"Far enough for what?" Revan asked, frowning.

Jyr extending his palm toward Revan and force-threw him backward into a tree.

Before he could slide down to the ground Jyr was on top of him and kicked into his midsection. He quickly got another force grip on Revan and threw him backward into another tree.

This time Revan caught his feet on the trunk and rebounded back into the air. He landed on the ground and rolled to his feet, coming up into a combat stance.

Jyr force-pushed at Revan, but the ancient Jedi resisted the telekinetic flow. Without hesitation Jyr reversed his attack into a force-pull and caught Revan off balance. The dark-haired man flew through the air toward Jyr, who kneed him in the gut, then threw him into another tree.

Revan righted himself again. He'd faced far worse at the hands of the Exerket and won, but those opponents hadn't used lightsabers, and while Jyr's pair still remained tucked into his waistband, all it would take is one flick of his wrist and he could cut Revan in half.

Before Jyr had a chance to close the distance between them Revan reached out and grabbed a log with the force. He lifted the deadweight up a meter then accelerated the bulk towards his adversary, but Jyr lithely jumped up and over it, coming down with an agile grace and a hail of small stones that he'd collected from somewhere. They pelted the ground around Revan's feet as he panickly jumped backward.

"I haven't forgotten all the Jedi you killed, Revan," Jyr said as he hurled a small boulder his way.

Revan caught it midair, then let it drop to the ground. "Neither have I."

Jyr swung his hand crossways and a telekinetic side blow knocked Revan from his feet. Before he could get up Jyr darted forward and kicked him in the gut.

The pain of old wounds blossomed in his midsection, and Revan reacted instinctively. He exploded outward in a kinetic sphere, violently knocking Jyr up into the overhead branches. Revan stood and looked for his opponent as he massaged his bruised abdomen. "I can't undo what I did."

Jyr dropped to the ground behind him, with only the sound of his landing alerting Revan to his presence. Frustratingly, Revan couldn't sense him in the Force, which resulted in Jyr getting a half step advantage on him as he attacked with a lightning fast punch that Revan only partially blocked with an upraised arm.

Before Revan realized what was happening he was involved in a hand to hand fight similar to the hundreds, if not thousands, of battles he'd been forced to fight against the Exerket…except he couldn't sense Jyr, and the man was too damn fast.

Pain exploded in his ribs, quickly followed by his head. His legs followed and he was dumped to the ground, then bound up by Jyr's arms in a headlock. "How many Jedi did you torture and kill? How many oaths did you break? How many friends did you betray?"

Jyr's words tore into Revan almost as much as the man's elbow did in his back, and he found himself teetering on the edge of losing control. "What would you have me do?" he ground out through clenched teeth.

"You didn't give them a chance," Jyr said angrily. "Why should I give you one?"

From his fingertips Jyr loosed a weak tendril of force lightning through Revan's bound body.

Revan convulsed from the shock but couldn't move, held tightly by Jyr's unnatural strength. Unable to move, dodge, counter, or repel the excruciating pain Revan's mind snapped…and he went beserk.

Propelled by an incredibly powerful kinetic blast, Jyr's iron lock was broken and the Jedi was knocked into a nearby tree and fell to the ground. Revan tore after him, pummeling him with kinetic blows. Jyr eventually righted himself and blocked each and every one with an outstretched forearm, as if he were bisecting each force blow and diverting it to either side.

This infuriated Revan even more. He knew he didn't have the physical strength to attack Jyr directly, but his force powers had increased steadily over his years of captivity and he should have been able to crush the man with a few well placed blows…but he couldn't.

Then Revan decided to do something he hadn't done in 4,000 years. He lifted a hand towards Jyr as his mind flashed back to his time as a Sith. He dredged up the dark memories and the techniques that he'd vowed never to use again. He felt the tingling sickness of the darkside on the periphery of his vision and stripped the technique away from it. He hated the darkside more than anything, and as the familiar anger welled within himself, Revan kept the darkside out as he unleashed his own torrent of force lightning...one far more powerful than Jyr's.

To Revan's dismay the man caught it in his palms, then threw it harmlessly down into the dirt. With a speed far faster than Revan had ever thought humanly possible, Jyr ran forward, pulled out his lightsaber, and drove the blue blade into his chest.

Revan woke suddenly, starring at the broad foliage of Kashyyyk's forest canopy. He blinked his eyes twice, realized that he was lying on his back, and cautiously sat up, feeling for the hole in his chest as he did so. There was none.

A snap of a twig turned Revan's head around and he found Jyr quietly walking toward him.

"Relax Revan, I'm not going to attack you again," he said as he walked up beside Revan and sat down on the ground next to him.

Revan cocked an eyebrow his direction. "What the hell is going on?"

Jyr blew out a resigned breath. "I had to be sure you wouldn't turn back to the darkside."

"Are you saying that was all a test?" Revan asked disbelievingly.

"Yes," Jyr said simply.

Revan rubbed his aching head. "I suppose I deserved that."

"What really happened on Nathon the first time?" Jyr asked sincerely.

Revan sighed and lowered his head. "I broke, pure and simple."

"Why didn't you come back after you were set free?"

"I don't know. I wasn't myself, and yet I was."

Jyr pulled his knees up to his chest. "It's a darkside technique. It blinds certain parts of your mind while letting other parts remain free. It makes you easier to manipulate by blocking the part of you that would recognize the manipulation."

Revan looked up. "How do you know that?"

"I know my enemy well, Revan. I also know that I could never fall victim to that technique. No matter how screwed up I became, I'd always work my way free because my core would inherently reject the darkside."

"As you think I should have?"

"As a Jedi should have," Jyr clarified. "But you aren't really a Jedi, are you?"

Revan glared at him for a moment, but the glare was void of power. "No, I'm not. I haven't been for a long time."

"It may be painful to remember, but try and think back. When you captured and corrupted Jedi, were you successful with all of them?" Jyr asked, biting at his own words. It seemed to bother him as much asking the question as it did for Revan to remember.

"No. Not all."

"What happened to the others?"

"They wouldn't turn and I eventually had to…I eventually killed them."

"They were the real Jedi," Jyr said resolutely. "The ones that turned were not."

"How can you say that without knowing what they went through?"

"The lightside is inherently opposed to the darkside. If one is of the lightside, then it is impossible for them to be corrupted. Confused, perhaps, but not corrupted. And vice versa."

"You're saying that some people can't be redeemed?" Revan asked.

"Some people are inherently darkside, just as I am inherently lightside. And that will never change."

"Then why can't I sense the lightside from you?" Revan asked, almost accusingly.

"Because I'm masking my presence," Jyr explained. "If you can't sense me, then there are a lot of techniques that you can't use against me."

Jyr closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them his masking technique faded away…and for the first time Revan could sense the power and potency of the lightside within his opponent.

"Where did I and the others go wrong?" he asked in a whisper, both awed and ashamed by what he sensed.

"That's not for me to say, for I can never know for certain. But I can make a few educated guesses."

"Please."

"You thought you were lightside when you were not. You thought that the light was simply avoiding the dark. In truth, you and the others were probably grey."

"And by grey you mean…?"

"You were force-sensitives that didn't align with either the darkside or the lightside. You simply used the force as a tool…drew from the medium instead of having the force flow from you."

"But it's not that way for you?" Revan asked.

Jyr shook his head. "At my core I've always been lightside, and the darkside has taken special interest in destroying me because of it."

"It's tried to corrupt you too?"

"No. It knows it can't, so it tries other ways of hindering me. I've been fighting it in one form or another my entire life."

"Such as?"

"The force exists in different ways for the lightside and the darkside. One interferes with the other one, and the greater the difference between extremes the more the interference."

"I remember one case in particular," Jyr continued, "early in my training, where I stumbled across a plateau strong with the darkside on some backwater world, I don't remember the name. When I came onto it I felt as if I couldn't breathe. The suppression was so strong that I had to backtrack the way I came until I was out of its reach."

"I came back there repeatedly over a number of years, testing my strength, until I finally grew powerful enough to erase the darkside presence from that place."

"How did you manage that?" Revan asked, intently curious.

"I pulsed my aura over and over again until it finally washed away the last traces of the darkside. The two are polar opposites and behave as such. You and the other grey Jedi simply had no charge, and could be pulled, coerced, or lead either way."

"Then how have I been able to defy the darkside for an eternity in a place strong with the darkside?"

"You tell me." Jyr said.

Revan thought about it, and applied Jyr's metaphor to his thought processes. "I think I was so sickened by what I had done that I compelled myself to be chargeless. I hate the darkside with every bone in my body, yet it's supposed to be hate that leads one to the darkside. I must have made myself unable to make the transition."

Jyr sighed. "Your masters trained you poorly. Hate is an emotion. Emotions do not lead you to the darkside anymore than tranquility leads you to the lightside. But I believe you are right with regards to your chargeless state. It probably also allowed you to survive the darkside environment without too much debilitation."

"We made ourselves numb to it," Revan surmised.

"In a sense, yes," Jyr confirmed, "but not numb to the force itself. You can still use it, but it's a medium useage with no alignment. You are grey, your burst of force lightning earlier confirmed it."

"But how can one be grey and still be a Jedi?" Revan asked, confused.

"One who is grey doesn't have to remain grey. Skywalker is a good example. He's pure lightside now, a true Jedi. But he wasn't always that way."

"He used to be grey?"

"Maybe very early in his training, then he began to shift his alignment from neutral towards the lightside. Only in the last few years did he take the final step and become permanently lightside. That's why he now carries a white blade."

"I thought he had a yellow lightsaber," Revan countered.

Jyr smiled and held up his lightsaber. He ignited the blue blade.

"Since you've been gone, we've found a way to combine the technology of a lightsaber and a stunsaber into a single blade. My blue blade and Skywalker's yellow are the stunsaber setting," he said, emphasized by tapping the blade against a nearby tree trunk. "The white," Jyr said as he toggled the interior force switch, "is the lightsaber blade."

Jyr swung it through a small sapling, then deactivated the blade and handed it to Revan. "The controls are behind the panels."

Revan felt the comforting weight of the pommel in his hand and ignited the pure white blade…the first blade he'd touched in millennia. "Impressive. I was told that the technologies were incompatible."

"Nearly, but we found a way."

Revan didn't take his eyes off the blade until tears began to well up. He switched it off and handed it back to Jyr. "Is it too late for me?"

Jyr put a hand on his shoulder and pulsed the lightside through him, and the tears welling up behind Revan's eyes burst forth in silence. "It will be difficult to unnumb yourself, and even if you are able to, you'll have your memories of the darkside to contend with. It will be a long and hard journey, but there is still a small chance."

Revan swiped away his tears. "Where do I begin?"

"By coming with me, and doing exactly what I tell you to…my new apprentice."


	57. Chapter 57

"Ready for takeoff," a fully dressed Siley said from the cutter's pilot's seat. "Standby weapons. Shield status?"

Tarren checked her system readouts back in the engineering section of the ship, then hit the comm button. "We're still peaked at 72%. Don't think we're going to get more than that."

"It'll have to do," Jyr said from the dorsal main turret. "Launch when ready, Lieutenant."

"Ay, sir. Activating repulsorlift coils now."

With a low thrum that vibrated the nearby trees, the Corellian cutter lifted slowly up through the break in the canopy and into clean air. "Raising shields," Siley noted as she toggled the bridge controls.

A thin, transparent bubble popped into existence around the ship just before the main engines fired and began the ascent to orbit.

"We've been spotted," Revan said from the copilot's seat. "Sensors show half a dozen fighters on intercept plus 50 or more starships in orbit directly above us."

"Where are the fighters coming from?" Luke asked from the smaller aft battery. Four other Wookiees manned identical anti-fighter batteries around the ship.

"From ground, due west," Revan answered. "They're not moving very fast, but at current speed they'll reach us before we leave the atmosphere."

"Are any of the starships redeploying?" Jyr asked.

Revan ran his eyes over the sensor screen again. "Not yet. Fighter eta two minutes."

Jyr swiveled the main gun around to cover the aft arc. "Siley, redirect shields 75% aft."

"Tarren, can I do that?" she asked.

The ancient Jedi frowned over the shield diagnostics. "Let me do it from here," she said as she pulled power from the forward shields and redistributed it aft.

"Here they come," Luke said steadily.

The main twin battery turbolaser cannon fired off a pair of ranged shots at the spec that was the incoming fighters, missing cleanly, but causing them to break formation. Luke was content to wait until they closed a bit further he fired, but was glad that Jyr was shaking them up a bit. Once they got in close his big guns would be next to useless.

Luke sat through three more rounds from the main guns before he squeezed off a rapid fire burst out the aft cupola. He tracked one fighter in particular and managed to score a minor hit before the fighters split around the cutter.

He heard the Wookiees' guns open up and glanced down at his short range sensor display, waiting for one of the fighters to circle back around into firing range. While he did so, the sky suddenly changed from blue to black, and the distant V'tol starships started to come into view.

Luke heard Jyr's main guns open up an unending stream of turbolaser blasts and wondered what he was shooting at. He didn't have time to find out, with two of the V'tol fighters circling around for another aft run against the ship. Luke caught one mid-turn and stitched it with dozens of laser blasts.

The fighter absorbed the blasts with its thick armor peeling off one layer at a time beneath the assault. Before Luke's blasts could core all the way through it turned its damaged flank out of view and fired its own wave of lethal pink bolts.

The shield outside Luke's cupola caught and dissipated the destructive energy but he paid no attention to it. His focus was solely on the fighter and keeping his crosshairs over it. As it moved to pass over the ship Luke racked up enough hits and sufficient damage to drop it unpowered, but relatively intact back into the atmosphere.

"Got one," he announced while searching for his next target.

Meanwhile Jyr was firing the main guns for all they were worth at the distant frigate angling their way. From the trajectories involved, he guessed they'd make it to hyperspace before it caught them, but he wasn't about to get lax and decided to do as much damage as he could to the shieldless ship. He also knew that the ship's computer would be recording the fight and that he could analyze the enemy ships better if he pumped a few rounds their way.

"Heads up," Revan warned. "We've got over 100 fighters deploying from orbit. At least some of them will get to us before we reach hyperspace."

"Wonderful," Luke muttered to himself as another fighter bit the dust, this time from one of the Wookiees' guns. "How are the shields holding up?"

"We're down to 56%," Tarren said. "I don't think we can hold out against that many fighters."

"Pilot," Jyr said with all the authority one would expect from a General, "you need to do better than that."

"Yes, sir," Siley answered cautiously. "Hold on, I don't know how much maneuvering this ship can take."

Luke swayed in his seat as Siley pulled a hard right turn and kicked the engines into overthrust. She held it for three seconds, long enough for the approaching fighters to alter their trajectory to match, then killed the engines, altered their trajectory 40 degrees, and reactivated the ship's thrust."

"You're heading us back to the planet," Revan commented from the copilot's seat.

"I know what I'm doing," she scolded, then tapped the intercom. "Tarren, I need as much shield strength on the ventral hemisphere as possible."

"I don't like the sound of that," Tarren said as she readjusted their protective shield.

Siley tweaked their heading slightly and the ship rocked with the first licks of atmosphere striking the lower shield.

"I get it, kid. Good thinking," Revan said approvingly. "Pull us up between those two spike balls. They've already launched their fighters."

"Standby for hard break," Siley announced to the entire ship. "Five, four, three, two, one, mark."

Siley bounced the ship up off the atmosphere and banked hard for high orbit, overthrusting the engines simultaneously. As a result the ship lept upwards, passing beneath the closest fighters and delaying their convergence…all the while driving hard for the gap between two large V'tol vessels and clear space beyond.

"Tarren, pull the main gun offline and reinforce the shields," Jyr ordered.

"No good, the matrix won't hold the extra juice. We'll end up frying the emitters," she said as the number of green icons on her board gradually shifted to yellow and a few red.

"What about the engines then?"

Tarren checked another status board. "That I can do. Pulling power now."

Jyr's cupola went dark and he unstrapped himself from the gunner's seat. He slid through the short connective tunnel and headed up to the bridge. When he got there the ship was surrounded by fighters.

"Hang on," Siley yelled over the comm. "Just a few more seconds."

"Port shields are down," Tarren said as a large vibration shook the ship.

"Three, two, one," Siley whispered as she reached forward and pulled back the hyperspace engine activation levers once the ship passed the line of minimum gravitational distortion on the navigational display.

The stars elongated before them and the former storage shed slipped into hyperspace enroute to Telos and Jyr's Shadow Alliance army.


	58. Chapter 58

"My Lord, the other Warlords are standing by for your arrival," a Shadow Alliance soldier informed Jyr as soon as they touched down on Telos.

"Have all updates since my last communication routed to the holo chamber," Jyr ordered as he bolted from the landing ramp. "Luke, you know your way around. Find a comm station and contact the other Jedi, give me whatever intel you can and inform them to steer clear of the V'tol generals."

"I think the giants are the V'tol," Luke pointed out while keeping pace with Jyr.

"We don't know that for sure. Commander, see to our guests and outfit them with whatever gear they request. The Humans in particular need a change of clothes."

"Is this what we've been waiting for, sir?" the soldier asked.

"It is," Jyr said monotone.

"How do we look?" he asked.

"I don't know yet. Hopefully the other Warlords are a step ahead of me," Jyr said, waving off both Luke and the soldier. He continued on alone until he reached the long-range communications chamber and sealed himself inside.

"Status report," he demanded.

The holographic images of the other 11 Warlords turned to face him as he stepped up to his position in the ring and began pulling up regional status reports on his pedestal.

"We wanted to wait for your return, but we felt the situation deemed immediate action," Admiral Revoris apologized, "so we initiated Operation Recoil."

"You were right to do so," Jyr approved. "Where do we stand?"

Ivan Darr, the Warlord tasked with overseeing the coreward region that included Coruscant stood a bit straighter before speaking. "Our regional hubs are online and processing a steady stream of refugees, but the fractured military forces are proving difficult to locate, though we have picked up a few stragglers."

"I have better news to report, my Lord," Admiral Sevis added. "With the loss of Corellia, the Alliance fleet has been thrown into complete disarray. Admiral Carris brought over his entire taskforce and is currently holding position at Point Gamma."

"That was fast," Jyr commented.

Sevis agreed with a nod. "These V'tol chopped the heads off of every major power simultaneously. The galaxy is in turmoil over who will be next on their hit list. The Corellian commanders aren't keen on the idea of camping out over friendly worlds and wondering who'll be next. We've picked up a considerable amount of military equipment and personnel over the last week, and I anticipate greater numbers in coming days."

"We need to gather as much as we can," Jyr emphasized, "before it's lost in futile battles. According to reports, we lost eight major shipyards in the first wave of attacks."

"I don't believe there will be a second wave," Warlord Arcane suggested. "After going over preliminary data I believe the enemy has maxed out."

The chamber was silent for the next few seconds until Jyr finally spoke. "You think they went all in for one knockout blow?"

Arcane nodded. "We believe the V'tol are also extra galactic…which means they have a limited number of ships and resources that they brought with them. With their technological edge, it's possible they decided to mass attack the most fortified worlds while their numbers are at their highest, simultaneously disorganizing and demoralizing their opposition, then they can sit tight and secure their holdings while the galaxy cowers from another attack that won't come for some time."

"They might even pick up a few additional worlds left defenseless by the chaos," Darr added.

Jyr considered that for a moment. "We need more data to be sure. Have there been any more attacks?"

Revoris and several others shook their heads, but he alone spoke. "None against allied systems. But we have detected several operations against the Insectoids."

"How many?" Jyr asked, his eyes gleaming and narrowing at the same time.

"Seven."

"Simultaneous?"

"No, they were consecutive. And the V'tol didn't stick around afterwards. They burned them from orbit, leaving craters that sunk low enough to hit their subsurface structures. We also believe they landed ground troops for mop up action, but we never caught sight of them. The systems were completely deserted."

"Have they done this to anyone else?" Jyr asked.

"The Chiss," Commodore Nevar said. "They attacked Csilla and inflicted massive damage from orbit, but never landed any ground troops. They retreated after annihilating all resistance and decimating the planet's major cities. We think that same fleet might be the one currently hunting the Insectoids."

Jyr was silent for a moment. "Have you any data on the disposition of the enemy ground forces?"

"Secondhand accounts only," Sevis answered regretfully. "We're sifting through the data recorders of escaping ships to see if we can pull any visuals."

"I had a personal run-in with their forces on Kashyyyk," Jyr said. "They are a collaboration of several alien species led by giants that appear to be made of living rock. These generals are extremely resistant to damage, including lightsaber blades, but I managed to puncture two holes in the back of one and its innards flowed out like lava before it finally died, frozen in place like a statue."

"They're cold sensitive," Nevar surmised.

"I also received intel from a couple of wayward Jedi of an additional invasion on a world called Nathon in the Unknown Regions. They said the giants deliberately walked through the lava flows and came out unharmed," Jyr said, agreeing with Nevar.

"We need to establish more ice-world facilities," Darr suggested, "deep underground so they can withstand orbital bombardment."

"Let's stick with upgrading the ones we currently have," Jyr cautioned. "At the moment this is purely speculation, but I think it bears looking into."

"Agreed," Arcane said passively, "but for the moment we need to focus on consolidating galactic forces. Do we have your permission to start communicating directly with planetary governments?" he said, looking at Jyr.

"Yes," he said firmly. "Insist that they start mobilizing their infrastructure and help them retool their defenses into Harassment Protocol."

"Then we're giving up on defending Shadow Alliance worlds?" Nevar asked regretfully.

Jyr sighed. "We knew this was coming and have planned accordingly. There is no way we can stand toe to toe against the V'tol. If they choose to invade one of our worlds we're going to cause as much damage as possible without gutting our own forces in the process. I know you don't like running any more than I do, but it's necessary given the scenario we face. Until we can gain numerical superiority or superior tech we have to operate on the defensive."

Jyr raised an eyebrow as he switched subjects. "To that end, I hope you received the armor sample I sent you?"

Nevar nodded. "Very promising, but our preliminary analysis says that we won't be able to replicate it in detail. However, my techs suggest that we may be able to develop a similar compound 10% as effective."

"Even that will be far superior to our current armor," Darr pointed out.

"What kind of timetable are we looking at?" Jyr asked.

"My techs quoted me 6 months," Nevar answered.

"Mine said 5," Sevis countered, "but at this point I think they're just guessing. And even if we had a useable compound now, it would take years to refit the entire fleet."

"True," Jyr agreed, "but the sooner we get it into the pipeline the better."

"What of the armor's source?" Darr asked curiously.

"That is a very interesting point," Jyr answered cryptically. "I'll tell you what I've learned, but know this…I have a feeling that the source of the armor may be the long-term solution to gaining an advantage over the V'tol."


	59. Chapter 59

Rey-Len Tarren dashed for the finish line of obstacle course #5 with the little energy she had left and all but fell on the pedestal as she slapped her left hand down on the timing button.

She glanced up at her time and keyed for a comparison to the other Jedi training in Jyr's hidden facility. Her time was second to last, which elicited a small smile from her worn out face. _Progress_.

It had been 7 months since her escape from Nathon, and 6 ½ since she'd been given the keys to Jyr's training center where she had been solely consumed with physical and mental training geared toward repairing her body and regaining her self-sufficiency.

Why she had expected more after 4,000 years of torture and torment she didn't know, but Rey-len was finding her recovery difficult at best, and all the while frustrating her to no end. The darkside-saturated environment was gone. Her captivity was over. She had all the equipment, supplies, and creature comforts that she'd been deprived of over the eons she'd spent on Nathon…and to top it off, she'd been placed in a Jedi's version of wonderland: a facility that was designed to _measure_ and _record_ a Jedi's development in an objective fashion. So much of her initial training had been in the subjective realm that it left both her and other Jedi of her era unsure of themselves and wanting for ability and skill benchmarks to work off of…and now she finally had them.

But to her continual annoyance, both her body and mind still seemed to be in lockdown mode, as if her subconscious didn't truly believe that her ordeal was over yet, and was bracing her for another round of unavoidable damage.

Rey-len had been warned about this possibility by Master Skywalker, and she grudgingly had to accede to his wisdom in this matter. He had told her not to focus on the amount of progress that she was making, but rather to focus on the continuation of the progress, no matter how small, and in time the larger changes would come.

And small progress it was, no matter how hard she pushed her diminutive limits, but she was glad for the fatigue, for it was the one part of her training that felt right. She'd been subjected to years of stagnation, and in this way at least she could throw it back in its face each and every time she dragged herself into the shower after a few hours of hard workouts. Then perhaps she could get an hour or so of restful sleep before the nightmares began again.

Had it not been for Skywalker's counsel, she'd have been concerned that she was irreparably damaged. But for the first time in decades she could sense the small spark of the lightside within her, shining dimly, but constantly. She'd held onto that spark during her captivity amidst the torrent of the darkside continually around her, burying it so deeply at times that even she could not feel it…but here there were no distractions, no enemies, nothing to smother the spark, nothing to conceal it from, and she knew, so long as she could retain a hold on that single spark, that she was going to be alright.

Rey-len ran her bony fingers through her inch-long hair and shook the sweat from her gray spikes. She'd cut off the long locks, knowing that they'd interfere with training, but she'd also had no success with removing the smells of her cave/cell from the strands, and she wasn't about to let any remnants of that place remain. She'd gotten a few curious glances from the other Jedi training at the facility, but that had been the beginning and the end of it. All of them were so focused on their training and the galactic war that there was little time to concern themselves with anything else.

Indeed, the past few months had seen many changes. Master Jyr and Revan had been traveling across the galaxy, gathering as many rogue military units to their cause as they could find while Jyr instructed Revan in several curious techniques that her friend had detailed in his constant communiqués. No matter how busy he was, Revan always found time to keep her updated on his activities and galactic events.

Initially he'd been skeptical about taking on another Master, but Revan quickly began to realize that Jyr was no ordinary Jedi. He was as militant, if not more so, than Revan had been during the Mandalorian Wars and was vehemently opposed to the pacifistic/non-interference policies that the Order had embraced in the past.

Revan had said in a recent update that he'd learned more about the nature of the Force from Jyr than he'd learned from all his years of training as a padawan combined, and had highlighted several key tenets that he thought Rey-len might find interesting.

Several ones, in fact, that had given light to answers that they had been seeking since before and during their capture. They had had many long, philosophical debates during their captive years in which they'd come to regret many actions they'd taken during the Mandalorian Wars, and in Revan's case afterward, but some things had remained vague and had been an elusive mystery that Revan now believed to have been solved.

Revan's next message was actually overdue by a week, but that was understandable given recent events. Jyr's forces had just seen their first victory over the V'tol, and Rey-len understood the necessity of immediate follow up action.

After the initial V'tol invasion, their super-fleets remained in position over their captive worlds while they consolidated their hold on the surface and began to retask the population and infrastructure to their own needs, as well as subdue any lingering rebellion. The only exception to this policy was the super-fleet that had razed Csilla, then moved on to do the same to a number of Insectoid worlds.

This roving fleet had so many ships that, even after several pitched battles, their numbers had barely been diminished, and given their technological and numerical superiority they were rolling over every world on their hit list, which for the moment seemed to be strictly reserved for the Insectoids.

Jyr's intelligence forces had eventually located this roving fleet and been tailing it with a number of recon drones, documenting each and every Insectoid system they hit(some previously unknown to the Alliance), as well as recording the every so vital battle data, which was transmitted back into the Shadow Alliance comm network prior to each hyperspace jump.

However, when the V'tol fleet ran across what must have been bug central, they found themselves in the middle of their first contended fight, which lasted over 48 hours.

The Insectoid world, temperate with a wide span of forest, had a volcanic structure on the surface that rose some 70 km high and capped with a perfectly flat plateau. This plateau was then pitted with indentations of various sizes, which recon data later matched up with the shape of Insectoid starship hulls.

The entire 'volcano' had turned out to be a massive Insectoid structure with their version of a shipyard on top, including a single massive depression that contained the partially completely framework of a Hive ship, safely protected beneath a large, and every so powerful energy shield…one that the V'tol hadn't been able to penetrate.

They had instead landed ground forces outside the shield and began a surface attack while their warships battled an every increasing flow of Insectoid ships returning to the system in defense of their facility. Little by little, with the assistance of the volcano's ground to orbit weaponry, the V'tol fleet was gradually whittled down ship by ship until they eventually gave up on the surface campaign, recalled their ground troops, and slowly began to pull out of the system.

Meanwhile Jyr and Revan had been studying the ongoing battle from afar and had gathered a massive fleet just outside the Insectoid system, hoping to take advantage of the situation no matter who eventually won…all the while monitoring V'tol worlds to see if any of their guardian fleets would be called upon for reinforcements.

When the V'tol finally abandoned their attack and began to escort the giant sphere command ship out from low orbit with a score of Insectoid ships nipping at their heels, Jyr jumped his fleet into high orbit and cranked up his interdictors, pinning the V'tol between them and the Insectoids.

Twenty seven Imp-class Star Destroyers and 112 Shadow Alliance cruisers stood in the V'tol's way and took great pleasure targeting the holes in the enemy's armored hulls that the Insectoids had been kind enough to open up over the past two days…and eagerly expanded on the damage.

Meanwhile the Insectoids continued to target the sphere ship from behind as the V'tol's smaller ships plodded forward to intercept the newcomers. The massive V'tol vessel had already seen major damage from the Insectoids' surface batteries, but its weaponry was still far superior to any other ship in the battle. It took down an Insectoid ship every thirty seconds or so…but there were so many Insectoid ships, some still arriving from hyperspace, that the massive vessel was being overwhelmed while what was left of its fleet was being hit hard by the Humans.

On Jyr's order, nothing smaller than a cruiser and nothing larger than an _Imperial_-class Star Destroyer would be used in the assault, despite the defection of two Super Star Destroyers to the Shadow Alliance fleet, as well as hundreds of smaller ships. Jyr knew well that they needed a mixture of strength to withstand the V'tol's guns and speed to escape the war of attrition that the enemy would ultimately win, given their superior armor and weaponry.

In fact, Jyr and his forces were counting on the damage done by the Insectoids to give them a fighting chance, and had deployed in a reinforced blockade line designed to allow ship rotation that would give each other cover when ships began to suffer hull damage. They were not fighting over friendly ground, and therefore any ship who lost hyperspace engines would be at the mercy of the Insectoids after the battle's conclusion, so Jyr had given strict orders to inflict damage then run for cover in an effort to preserve their ships.

Never the less, the Allied fleet suffered heavy damage before leaving the last handful of ships to the Insectoids and escaping to hyperspace before the bugs ran out of V'tol ships to target. Before they jumped they witnessed the final destruction of the sphere ship and the resulting swarm of fast moving Insectoid cruisers and destroyers catch and pulverize the remaining slow and bulky V'tol ships as they plodded up towards high orbit in a futile attempt at escape.

All of the allied ships had survived and escaped the system before the Insectoids could target them, but the damage inflicted would take months, if not years to repair. Meanwhile the damaged ships would have to be taken off active duty or retasked to lesser assignments given their compromised state, as they patiently waited in line for shipyard slips to open up.

The success of the raid, however, gave a desperately needed boost in morale to the galaxy, and had given the Shadow Alliance the credibility it needed to draw in more of the galaxy's scattered military forces. Even now, Jyr and Revan were out assimilating the new ships into their ever growing fleet while they simultaneously tracked down other non-committed forces and made a case for galactic unification against their common threat.

So it was an unexpected surprise to Rey-len when Revan appeared unannounced on her doorstep.

"You're looking better," Revan said when he met her in the facility's hangar bay.

"Do I?" she asked quizzically. "I still look like an old woman in the mirror."

"Less old now," he said quietly.

Rey-len frowned. "What is it?"

"I'm leaving," he said simply.

She shook her head. "I don't understand."

"I'm not a Jedi, Tarren. I don't belong with the Order, not after what I did."

Rey-len put her hands on her hips and glared at Revan. "We've had this discussion many times before…"

Revan held up a hand to stop her. "Jyr cleared up a number of misconceptions I had, and I'm grateful to him for that, but I can't serve under him. He's too restrictive in his tactics."

"Revan," she warned, "I don't like the sound of where this is going."

"I'm not going darkside," he said confrontationally. "I'll never go darkside again…but I also won't hold back as Jyr is doing. I'm going to do what's necessary to defend this galaxy. I don't have to be a Jedi to do that."

"Then why are you carrying that?" she asked, pointing at the double-bladed lightsaber hanging off his belt.

Revan glanced down at it. "It's a tool, nothing more. I'll change the color if it'll make you feel better," he offered sarcastically.

Rey-len glared again, this time harder. "After all we went through to survive, all we went through to remain Jedi, you're giving up _now_?"

Revan's eyes narrowed. "Not giving up, coming to a realization. My loyalty has always been to the galaxy, not to the lightside. And if using the lightside requires me to hold back from doing what's necessary…then I'm content to remain gray."

"You don't have to use the darkside to become its ally, Revan. Some of the things we did back in the Mandalorian Wars were just plain wrong. Malachor V for one."

"And if such an action would save the galaxy from the V'tol I'd make the same choice you did in ending the Mandalorian Wars," Revan openly admitted. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to save lives. If you hadn't destroyed Malachor many more people would have died fighting. You saved many, many lives that day."

"By betraying my own troops," Rey-len said forcefully. "Why can't you see how dishonorable that was?"

"I'll suffer the dishonor if it will save lives."

"Will you turn back to the darkside if it'll save lives?" Rey-len countered ominously.

Revan considered that for a moment. "No. The darkside used me to do more damage. It deceived me to the point where I didn't realize what I was doing. I'll never let that happen again, I promise you."

"Yet you have no qualms about sacrificing other people's lives so long as it adds up mathematically in the end?"

"Do I like doing it?...No…Will I hesitate if it's absolutely necessary?...No… Hesitation could cause more people their lives. I won't let that happen to them because I was a little squeamish."

"You weren't like this when we went off to fight the Mandalorians," Rey-len countered.

"I was idealistic then," Revan admitted. "With experience I became practical."

"You became lost. We became lost. Saving lives is not the utmost priority. Assuming it was was the fundamental mistake we made."

Revan raised an eyebrow. "What then, is the higher priority?"

"The Way of the Jedi."

"Meaning what?" Revan scoffed.

"Let's put it bluntly," Rey-len scolded. "We've lived long enough to gain a certain perspective that no one else has."

"Yes, let's," Revan countered.

"What's the point in saving lives," Rey-len asked, "when they're just going to grow old and die a few decades later anyway?"

Revan opened his mouth in an automatic retort, then found himself caught off guard by the question. "Interesting perspective. I hadn't thought of it that way."

"Well?"

Revan considered that for a moment. "Well, the cold response would be preserving the gene pool…but on a personal level I'd say that we have a responsibility to save the lives, not to dictate how the people use them afterward."

"You're dodging," she noted. "Your end-all logic comes back to saving the most lives. I ask you again, for what?"

"That should be a rhetorical question."

"Yes it should," Rey-len countered. "But let's have a go at it anyway."

"Let me guess what you would say," Revan suggested. "You'd say that we have a duty to defend each and every single life, regardless of the numbers."

"Yes."

"Even if by saving those few, we doom others to death?"

"Again, what's the point of avoiding death if it's going to happen to them soon anyway?"

"Freedom," Revan said emphatically. "Freedom to live and die as they choose, not how someone else chooses for them."

"Yet you choose for them when you ordered them into hopeless battles to divert and confuse the enemy."

"I insured the most freedom for the most people that I could. If I hadn't, more would have suffered and died. And yes, they'd have died eventually anyway, but there's a big difference between dying in bed of old age with friends and family beside you than dying under the merciless guns of the enemy."

"And yet, dying under the guns of the enemy while opposing that enemy is far better than dying at the hand of a friend and ally," she countered vehemently.

"Don't let your personal feelings cloud your duty," Revan said icily. "We're powerful, but we're not all-powerful. There are some things which we simply cannot do. I choose to do the most with what I have to work with, and in some situations that's the lives of my men, or my own life, that I will trade, barter, or exchange in the name of accomplishing the mission. I understand and accept that. So did my men."

"Accepting it doesn't make it right."

"What is right and wrong?...Except one's own cultural point of view?"

Jey-len clenched her fists. "Now you're sounding like a Sith."

Revan's eyes narrowed. "Sith are pawns of the darkside that ultimately end up causing death and chaos. I am a defender of the people. I build and protect. We are nothing alike."

"I followed you to war because it was the right thing to do," Rey-len said distantly. She knew now that he would not be dissuaded. "You acted when the others wouldn't. They sought to protect the most lives they could, the good of the many, by not getting involved in the war prematurely. They chose to sacrifice by negligence the people on the outer rim to the Mandalorians and you wouldn't stand for it…neither would I and the others that followed you. We did what we did initially because we were in the right and the counsel was in the wrong. Where did we lose that Revan?"

"To maturity and wisdom," he said quietly, realizing as she did that there would be no agreement between them. "I had come here to check on your progress and to offer to take you with me. I see now that neither were necessary."

"Where are you going?"

"Away," Revan said ambiguously. "To a place where I can build a force capable of repelling this invasion. It may take decades, even centuries to accomplish…but I have both the longevity and patience for such a fight, as do you."

"I will never fight in that manner again, Revan…nor should you."

"I will do what I must to insure the survival of the galaxy."

"And I will do what I must to safeguard each and every individual I come across. If I betray even one of them, then I am admitting defeat. And you know well how I don't like to lose."

"That I do," Revan said as he turned back up the boarding ramp.

"Revan, I do not want to become enemies. Don't do anything that will force us onto opposite sides."

Revan half turned back and looked her in the eyes regretfully. "That's why I have to leave," he whispered before turning and boarding his ship. The ramp retracted and Rey-len stepped clear of the engine wash as the ship deftly lifted off the deck and exited the bay.

She watched it fly away, tears streaming down her cheeks, until the diminishing speck vanished in the distance.


	60. Chapter 60 Heir to the Empire

"What are we up against, Captain?" Luke asked from the bridge of a Shadow Alliance cruiser. He'd boarded in such a hurry that he didn't even know which ship he was on.

They were barely out of hyperspace when the words came out of his mouth, but the _Adamant_'s captain didn't look perturbed by the question he couldn't yet answer. The tactical holo flared to life in front of them, with the Captain equally eager to see what kind of hand they had been dealt.

"Looks like a small invasion force, General Skywalker. Four cruisers, 18 frigates, two transports. I don't think they were expecting a fight."

"Well they're going to get one anyway," Luke said icily. "Have they landed ground troops yet?"

Captain Joru nodded. "Two sites, sir. They may have already grounded additional ships…we can't be sure with that energy shield over their heads, and the height of the forest blocks line of sight confirmation."

"Have they found the temple yet?" Luke asked worriedly. One of the two positions marked on the surface of Endor was in the approximate vicinity, but Luke couldn't tell for sure on the planet-sized holo.

"I'd have to know exactly where that was, sir. Your temple isn't mapped in our database."

"It's not supposed to be," Skywalker said as he ran his finger over the holo. "Scan this sector," he ordered.

"Lieutentant," Joru ordered sharply, "I need a focused sensor scan on quadrant 36."

"Yes, Captain," the Shadow Alliance officer echoed as the fleet broke up by pairs to engage the scattered Insectoid ships hovering over the planet in low orbit. The enemy was arrayed in a simple blockade formation around the green sphere of a moon, putting them within intercept range of any ship that might launch from the surface.

That was fortunate for Luke's hastily assembled fleet. They were 32 ships strong, but only seven of which were cruisers. The rest were Shadow Alliance destroyers and frigates, save for one Imperial-class Star Destroyer. They had more ships on the way, but there was no time to wait up for them. Had they encountered a larger Insectoid force then they'd have been forced to wait for reinforcements. As it was, it was a pretty square fight, with the only question being…had they found the Jedi temple yet?

A regional holo suddenly replaced the planetary sphere and highlighted a large structure within the forest. "Is this it, General?"

Luke recognized the design instantly. He'd been the one that'd had it built after all. "That's it. How close are they?"

"I'd estimate 50 klicks. Too close to be coincidence, they must be after the Jedi."

Luke bit his lip. Something didn't feel right. "Maybe not, Captain. Why wouldn't they set up camp closer?"

"Begging the General's pardon, but I don't have a kiffling clue what makes the bugs tick. The only intel we've received suggests they like forest, the more the better, and this moon is full of it…especially this quadrant," he said thoughtfully.

"We intentionally built the temple in the thickest region of the forest. It may be that they were thinking the same thing, only for different reasons."

"You may be right, sir, but they've got to have detected it by now."

Outside the ship, and relayed to the interior bridge by exterior cameras, the ship's main guns opened up on an Insectoid frigate.

"Open a comm channel," Luke ordered.

The Captain hesitated. "That'll expose their position immediately if they respond."

"I thought you said they'd already been compromised?"

"Best guess, sir. With that thick of a canopy obscuring our sensors we can't know for sure."

"Do it," Luke decided.

The Captain nodded briskly then flicked a finger toward a nearby cubicle. A moment later the comm officer half-turned to face them.

"Automated response beacon," she said reflexively. "No response to hails."

"Keep at it," the Captain ordered before he turned back to Luke. "What's our next move, General?"

"I've got to get down there," Luke said emphatically. "Send down fighters and ground troops when they arrive. I'll do what I can until then."

"The _Resolute_ is fully loaded, General," he said, referring to the Star Destroyer's onboard troops. "They can deploy within minutes."

Luke nodded. "Have them follow me down," he said as he turned and ran off the bridge.

A few minutes later he was in space, tucked neatly into the cockpit of one of Jyr's _Raptor_-class fighters. It was one of many unique designs that Jyr and his people had developed in secrecy over the past century…and one that Revan had stolen from Jyr's database before he'd left.

Luke still couldn't believe that he'd done it. Revan had worked seamlessly with Jyr for several months then disappeared suddenly, taking one of Jyr's special hybrid lightsabers, the technical specifications for every ship, weapon, and vehicle within the Shadow Alliance fleet, and topped it all off by hijacking one of Jyr's frigates and disappearing from known space…leaving nothing but a simple note behind proclaiming Jyr inadequate for the job of defending the galaxy.

Luke pushed his memories away. That had been two months ago, and the Jedi on Endor needed him now…not to mention the Ewoks. He hoped the Insectoids hadn't run across them yet. Luke didn't even want to think what they might do to them.

The tip of his black fighter depressed coming out of the cruiser and Luke ran his engines up to full, rocketing his way toward the surface. The few Insectoid fighters in the air were occupied with the capital ships, which left nothing in his way except the sickening feeling that he was going to be too late.

* * *

Outside the galaxy proper, in the swath of stars known as the Rishi Maze sat a planet called Nesotar…once a barren, lifeless world of sand…and now capitol of the Galactic Empire.

Grand Admiral Mirrotas stared out of his office viewport atop the Imperial spire that rose from the center of Ionis, Nesotar's capital city. The spire was so high that he had to look down to see the cloud tops, yet a quick glance upward was all that was required to see the upper end of seven skyhooks connecting surface facilities to low orbit habitats. Their connective cables' housed dozens of fast moving turbolifts, which saved both time and precious airspace when dealing with the hoard of orbit to surface traffic typical of a large urban metropolis.

Mirrotas glanced over his shoulder at the gleaming buildings below him and felt a pang of guilt that Nesotar had been spared the destruction that many other Imperial worlds had been subjected to in recent years. The "Hive," as they'd come to call the nameless invaders, had torn into their miniature galaxy with a vengeance, and had only been repelled after many long, bitter fights.

Even now the Hive still posed a threat, but the Empire's core worlds had been secured against further invasion, and it was only a matter of time before the industrial might of the Empire's war machine gradually won the battle of attrition and permanently wiped the scourge from the Rishi Maze…still, Mirrotas wished that he could go back and refight many of the initial battles. Much had been lost through ignorance in the outbreak of the war. Now that they knew their enemy, he felt they could have faired better if they'd taken a different initial tac.

The Grand Admiral's head jerked toward the door at the sound of a scuffle outside. His hand slid down to the secret compartment underneath the tabletop of his desk and withdrew a small holdout blaster.

His office door opened casually…and a single figure covered in a black overrobe walked inside.

Mirrotas felt his blaster tip move slightly to the side and tried to jerk it back in line, but some invisible grip held it tight. "Identify yourself," he intoned calmly.

"I am Revan…and I am hereby assuming command over the Empire."

"Oh?" Mirrotas said, raising an eyebrow calmly as he subtly toed a panic button under his desk. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Revan waved a finger to the side and Mirrotas's blaster flew out of his hand and hit the far wall, where it subsequently slid down between the cushions of a long couch.

"The galaxy is under attack from a far more powerful enemy than the one you currently face," Revan said carefully, imbuing certain emotions through the Force. "The people of the galaxy drove you out of civilized space, banishing you to isolation, all the while mistakenly believing that you'd been wiped out. Now they are on the verge of annihilation…and it is time for the Empire to finally return to the galaxy."

"We're in no position to fight another war," Mirrotas said carefully. "We've got our hands full as it is."

Revan smiled. "This isn't my first war, Admiral. I'll help you clean out our enemies here first, then regroup and retool for the greater war…a war that will see the Empire reclaim its rightful place in control of the galaxy…this time as its shield against a threat that it is not currently equipped to face."

Mirrotas raised an eyebrow again. His guards should be getting near. "And you really think a single Jedi can make that much of a difference?"

Revan's eyes narrowed. "You'd be surprised what proper leadership can accomplish…unlike some I won't hesitate to do what's necessary to safeguard the galaxy. I believe you and I have that in common."

"That we do," Mirrotas said as a score of storm troopers rushed into the room, quickly surrounding Revan at blaster-point. "However, I don't believe we require your help. We've done quite well on our own without relying on the Jedi."

"I'm no Jedi," Revan said evenly, "and I'm not asking. I will, however, give you a choice. We can do this the easy way or the hard way…regardless, I end up in command of the Empire."

Mirrotas smiled. "I think not." He nodded to the security Captain.

Revan sighed. _The hard way then._

In a blink of an eye Revan moved…and the storm troopers fell.


	61. Chapter 61

Luke activated his Raptor's navigational system and pinged for the temple's exact coordinates. The automated beacon responded immediately and Luke adjusted his trajectory slightly left to match the holographic line painted onto his virtual canopy. Even though several centimeters of armored hull sat between him and space, he could clearly see the trees of Endor's thick forest whip by underneath his fighter on the nearly perfect holographic replica of a transparent canopy.

He could also make out a thin trail of smoke on the horizon…and he knew he was probably too late. Hopefully there would be some survivors for him to rescue. If not, he'd have to settle on cutting down the number of Insectoids that the forthcoming ground troops would have to face. Jedi or no, the Shadow Alliance wasn't going to let the Insectoids keep Endor.

Even with the V'tol's successful raids against a handful of Insectoid worlds, the bugs were still on the rise. Their captured worlds were continually being fortified and their numbers seemed to be increasing exponentially. With the destruction of the V'tol's roving attack fleet, the galaxy had seen a firm standoff…no one dared attack a V'tol occupied world…meanwhile the V'tol saw fit to stay where they were and build.

While many saw this as a desperately needed reprieve, the Warlords knew it to be otherwise. It meant that the V'tol were no fools, and wouldn't risk diluting their numbers by capturing too many worlds too soon. They would be patient, attacking in force and defending in force, using their advanced tech and formidable armor in conjunction with equal or superior numbers to secure a firm hold on the galaxy.

To do so would take decades, if not centuries, but given their strengths and tactics there was little hope of stopping them. If they had staged a mass assault against thousands of systems then the Shadow Alliance and others could have used that to their advantage and hit them where they were weak.

That was not to be, however, which left the V'tol consolidating their conquests while the galaxy had to fend off the Insectoid juggernaut by itself. Win or lose, the fight against the Insectoids was whittling down allied forces…and the one advantage the galaxy had over the V'tol…their current ship count…was diminishing rapidly.

Well, not their only advantage. The allied forces of the galaxy also had the Jedi on their side, and thus far the V'tol had not produced an effective countermeasure to their skills. That said, the Insectoids had just inadvertently aided their greatest enemy when they had stumbled onto the Jedi temple.

When Luke came within three kilometers of the temple he flicked on his shields and rose high in the sky. He looked down and could see the central spire of the temple dead center in the wide forest clearing, with the newer addition of a Jyr-inspired training center towards the northern end of the oversized courtyard. Where there had been an expanse of grass there were now thousands of Insectoids crowding the temple grounds.

His fighter's lifeform detector registered far less than his vision did…apparently the Jedi at the temple had put up a good fight. There were hundreds of dead carcasses littering the grounds…yet Luke could still sense a battle being fought inside the temple.

He flipped nose for tail and pointed his laser cannons down at the enemy as he descended rapidly. The short, powerful blasts stitched a line from the center of the grounds into the western forest as Luke made his first pass. Several dozen lifeform signatures winked out behind him.

He pulled a hard, tight turn, gaining altitude as he did and prepared to jump from the fighter once he was over the temple again but quickly thought better of it. There were thousands of Insectoids below him, he might as well use his fighter's weapons to his advantage. Currently there was no Insectoid fighter support, which meant he and his lone Raptor had aerial superiority…and there was no point in him not taking advantage of it.

Luke proceeded to make a dozen more passes, mowing down more Insectoid warriors with every pass. Finally, after his 15th attack run the Insectoids scattered for cover in the forest…except for two tank-sized giants that lumbered into the clearing, and for the first time Luke had to dodge return fire.

The weapon pods on the Insectoids' knee joints acted like miniature anti-air cannons and filled the airspace over the temple with a flourish of green streaks. Luke pulled his fighter out low over the forest, ducking under their firing arc. He made a long, gradual loop to the east, then returned on a straight line trajectory, this time keeping just above the treetops.

As soon as he hit the clearing he received return fire. A few of the rapid fire blasts impacted his forward shields but he didn't waver. He fired on the nearest of the living tanks then went evasive, heading back to the safety of the forest and circling around again for another sortie against the second "tank."

As soon as it fell Luke angled the fighter towards the spire and quickly set down outside the main doors, one of which was lying on the ground with its hinges burned away. His Raptor's R-12 unit took to the skies as soon a Luke was clear of the ship and would circle at a safe distance until he called for its return.

Luke grabbed his lightsaber from his belt and ignited the white blade as he ran through the broken doors.

* * *

He encountered little resistance on the lower levels, but the higher he moved into the temple the more resistance he encountered. Luke figured that whoever was still alive in the temple had barricaded themselves up above in order to hold out against the swarm.

That tactic might just save their lives if Luke could only get to them in time. The Insectoids might not be the best of fighters, but there were only so many blaster bolts that he could block at a single time…and the number of Insectoids that he was encountering was exceeding it mightily, which meant that most of his climb through the temple's lower levels was a game of cat and mouse with Luke jumping in and out of cover to cut down one or two warriors at a time. It slowed him down considerably, but he was making progress none the less.

Then he sensed another wave of Insectoids coming up from below. Apparently the ones that had fled into the forest had finally figured out that his fighter was merely holding position and no longer a threat. Luke sensed hundreds climbing up from below and he knew it was only a matter of minutes before he was caught between their forces.

Luke cursed himself for not wearing armor. If he'd borrowed a set of Jyr's then he could have charged through the Insectoid ranks up to the higher levels, absorbing the few blasts that he couldn't block with his blade…but as it was he was wearing a close fitting Jedi robe and even a single Insectoid blast would disable or kill him.

He knew he couldn't change the situation so Luke kept on fighting upwards, keenly aware of each level the Insectoids below him climbed. In a few minutes he'd have to do his best just to hold position and cut through their numbers. Maybe if the fight lasted long enough he could draw down and thin their upper level numbers enough to retreat that direction.

Which was exactly what happened. Luke got pinned between the two and spent nearly half an hour battling in a stairwell with Insectoids both above and below him. He'd chosen the stairwell as his standoff point because its curve prevented any long range shots being taken at him. He had to deal with six to eight Insectoids simultaneously, continuously…but that was well within his ability. As the corpses mounted up he flung them down the stairs, which further hindered the Insectoid reinforcements and forced them to ascend only two or three at a time…which meant all but certain death against his lightsaber blade.

Any other Jedi would have been at risk of fatigue grinding them down, but the long training sessions that Luke and Jyr had gone through time and again had prepared him well for the continuous exertion. After a long, long fight the flow of Insectoids from above fell off and Luke felt it was time to risk further ascent. He didn't particularly like abandoning his stairwell position, but he also wanted to get the Insectoids on one side of him instead of two, so he began randomly leaping up the stairs during momentary lulls in the fighting.

Luke continued this trend until the hum of another lightsaber blade reached his ears. He pried his senses away from his personal battle and felt out a pair of Jedi just above him, with only a couple dozen Insectoids in between them.

"Luke! Where in the galaxy did you come from?" Kilor Vesx yelled as Luke lept over a large mount of bodies, not all of which were Insectoid.

"How many of you are left?" Luke asked, finally turning his back on safe ground. He force-pushed the pile towards the stairwell, partially blocking access to the foyer while clearing room for him to fight.

"Just the two of us and some of the younglings up in the council chamber," Ti-sen Lowell, Vesx's Padawan said from Luke's left, blocking yet another blaster bolt into the chamber's ceiling, which was already pitted like an airless moon's surface.

Luke pushed three emerging Insectoids back down the stairs and slipped a comlink from his utility belt. "General Skywalker to Captain Joru, do you copy?"

A wash of electronic interference crackled the audio as Luke unleashed a brief burst of force lightning. Two Insectoids shrieked then fell dead, smoke lifting from charred holes in their thorax. "-_mant_ here, General. What's your status?"

"I need a shuttle with escorts to evac survivors from the top of the temple. I'll use my lightsaber to cut an egress point in the wall, but you're going to have to get me a steady pilot and some air cover. They've got bio-walkers deployed."

"Understood, General. Help's on the way. _Adamant_ out."

Luke slipped the comlink away and pointed to a meter-wide column to his left. "Ti-sen, cut that pillar. Top first, then bottom."

With a curt nod the Padawan left his guard position and moved to the pillar. He stopped at its base, lept upward and slashed through the top before dropping into a crouch at the bottom, where he cut/sawed through the lower portion, the crushing weight of the pillar fighting his blade with molten material spewing out from the cut. In a few seconds his green blade emerged from the other side as the pillar began to topple. Ti-sen lept backwards to avoid the fall, but the pillar froze mid-tilt.

The Padawan blinked in confusion, then saw Luke's left hand extended his direction while blocking fire with his brilliant white blade in his other hand.

Luke's hand clenched slightly and the pillar tipped over into a lateral position. He redirected his hand toward the Insectoids and the pillar sluggishly followed suit. "Cut it in half!" Luke ordered.

Ti-sen didn't hesitate. He ran forward alongside the moving mass and bisected it with a single swing. The parts separated suddenly, but Luke maintained their now twin altitudes. He brought them forward, dropping the first across the doorway, smashing several corpses in the process. Two Insectoids jumped over it and landed inside the foyer.

Luke frowned in concentration, flinging the pair back over the pillar and into more of their brethren ascending toward the fight. With a heave he moved the other half of the pillar over top and let it crash down on one Insectoid trying to scurry between the two halves.

Luke jumped forward, still maintaining a hold on the top piece, and skewered the writhing Insectoid, putting it out of its misery while simultaneously grabbing its wrist-mounted blaster. He quickly found the trigger and fired a round of shots through one of the gaps in his improvised barricade while he pried two benches from the floor and jammed them diagonally up against the top pillar for support. He cut two trenches in the floor and slid the lower end of the benches into place before finally releasing his force-grip on the top pillar.

It moved a few centimeters then held in place for a moment. Another ripple of movement occurred as an Insectoid tried to climb over both and squeeze through the narrow gap in the top while more tried to wedge their way through small lower holes.

Luke fired a few shots into the gaps and the Insectoids momentarily pulled back. He tossed the forearm blaster to Ti-sen. "Keep them honest," he said while Vesx retrieved his own blaster from one of the corpses. "Yell if there's trouble. I'm going to prepare our exit."

Luke ran off and up another three levels until he arrived at the highest point in the spire…the council chamber/mediation room that he had spent so much of his time in before he'd met Jyr. Though it had only been a few years since then, so much had happened that it felt like another lifetime.

Actually, given how much he'd changed, it was another lifetime…from a certain point of view.

Luke walked into the council chambers, his dark Jedi robe in stark contrast to the bright white of the chamber. Thirty or so younglings hid behind the Masters' seats arrayed in a circle around the holo-platform in the center. A small boy stood up from behind the platform and looked up into Luke's eyes.

"Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?"

Luke ignited his blade and jammed it into the transparent viewport that circled the entire chamber. He started to drag it in an arc, cutting out a clear circular plug.

"We're going to get you out of here," Luke said boldly. "I promise."


	62. Chapter 62

The Shadow Alliance shuttle arrived at the top of the Jedi temple within minutes and nested up closely to the hole Luke had cut in the viewport…but not quite close enough.

"Ready?" Luke asked the youngling standing first in line. The small girl looked up at him with frightened, yet steady eyes and nodded. "Yes, Master."

Luke Force-lifted the youngling up off the ground a few centimeters then floated her through the hole in the transparisteel. For a brief moment she had nothing but air beneath her, then she was over the shuttle's extended boarding ramp and into the hands of an armored Alliance soldier who pulled her further inside.

The soldier handed her off to another grey-clad trooper who directed her to the front of the shuttle, up the short stairwell, and into the personnel compartment. The youngling sat down in the nearest seat and pulled her knees up against her chest, hoping that all her fellow Jedi made it out before the monsters came for them again.

One by one the younglings filed into the rows of seats, not one of them uttering even the smallest whisper. Some of them still carried their miniature stunsabers, their small hands holding them tightly to their chests in preparation for whatever awaited them.

Soon the Masters boarded the shuttle and the shuttle's immediate and rapid acceleration smashed their tiny bodies into the seats as they climbed for space. "Everyone ok?" Luke asked.

The younglings bobbed their heads 'yes' in unison. "Where are the others?" a small boy asked.

"They were killed, young one," Luke said sympathetically, yet straight to the point. "Master Vesx and Master Lowell were able to protect you until help came. All the others were killed before we arrived."

"What about the other temples?" the young girl that Luke had lifted first asked anxiously.

"They are safe for now," Luke reassured them, despite his growing anxiety over that subject. "Mon Calamari is still under siege, but the Jedi are safe behind the temple's shields, and our other temples haven't been attacked yet."

"Where are we going?" another asked.

Luke looked at all of the younglings in turn. "I don't know," he answered honestly.

* * *

"Raise shields!" Captain Rijex ordered sharply. "But hear me clearly…we will not fire first. There are still loyal crewers on those ships."

"Captain," the comm officer said calmly, "Admiral Uria is ordering you to stand down immediately. What should I tell her?"

"Tell her she can go to hell with the rest of that traitorous scum," Rijex said vehemently. Defect to the V'tol would they. He'd die before he betrayed the Commonwealth to those butchers.

"_Orion_ and _Virtue_ are moving to our flank," the sensor officer reported excitedly. "Looks like they're going to stick by us."

"As they should," Rijex reprimanded, though he was as glad as the junior officer that two of the six Brekk battleships assigned to the defense of Vetelix had chosen to stand their ground as well. That left three others undecided in the face of Admiral Uria's 18 battleships of identical make deployed around a single V'tol command vessel.

"Captain, I have Captain Herre requesting a private channel to you."

"Put him through to my earpiece, Lieutenant, and scramble under code Delta 7."

Rijex activated the audio dampening field around his command chair with an agitated finger stab on the control arm. "Go ahead, Laryn, we're secure."

"Quite the mess we're in, it seems."

"That it is. How do you want to play it?"

Herre cleared his throat. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but I think our best bet is to accede to their demands."

"What!?" Rijex yelled. "That's sithspit and you know it."

"I agree, but we're hopelessly outnumbered…and I don't want to have to fight our own ships."

"Neither do I, but if Uria attacks we _will_ defend ourselves."

"To what end, my friend? We can't keep them from taking Vetelix."

"Maybe not, but how many of those ship Captains are going to fire on us if push comes to shove?"

Silence hung over the comlink for a moment. "You think they'll balk if the Admiral crosses the line?"

"She already has by joining with the enemy…but she hasn't fired on a friendly yet. She does that it'll cause a kneejerk reaction from those Captains…you can bet on it."

Herre sighed. "Alright, we'll stand with you that far. I'd like to see how far she's willing to go myself."

"Now that's more like it. How about the other two?"

"They said they'd follow my lead. Planetary defense is still sitting on the fence though."

Rijex gritted his teeth. "Gutless cowards. Siding with the victor are they?"

"You can hardly blame them. They're stuck here regardless of what happens. We at least have the option to run. To which you might want to start thinking ahead and plot your jump coordinates now."

"Can't argue with you there," Rijex said, momentarily lowering the dampening field so he could issue the appropriate orders. "The least I can do is deny the V'tol my own ship."

"We side with the V'tol they gain our ships, we fight each other we lose our ships. Either way the V'tol are the winners in the end."

"Yeah, I know. I just didn't expect our own people would throw in with them."

"Well, here we go. Uria's launching fighters."

"That bitch needs to eat a blaster bolt. I've ordered my people to hold fire, I suggest you do the same."

"I already have."

Moments later the leading Y-wings launched their bomblets into the battleships' deployed shields. None of the loyal Brekk ships responded to the attack, merely soaking up the first wave of the bombers' assault. After the first pass the Y-wings and their Boomerang fighter escort peeled off and stalled in space between the two opposing ship lines.

"What are they doing?" Herre asked over the comlink.

"They're balking," Rijex said, no longer sitting behind the dampening field. He was standing directly in front of the viewport looking out at the starfighters and starships beyond.

"Looks like you called it right, my friend. But what's Uria going to do now?"

Almost as if in response, the _Iris_ surged forward from the opposing formation and opened fire on the defending battleships at extreme range. The diffuse turbolasers did little more than kiss the shields on impact, but the action made her intentions clear.

Two more battleships pulled into line behind the _Iris_ and joined in the attack while half of the fighters began making their second strafing run.

The other half, however, turned back and strafed the _Iris_ before making a run for deep space.

After that single act of defiance the first battle of the brief, but savage Brekk civil war ensued. Part of Admiral Uria's fleet defected and aided the loyalists in the nightmarish space battle that saw half the assembled ships destroyed. The presence of the V'tol command vessel tipped the scales in favor of the insurrectionists and forced the few surviving loyalist ships to flee the system and the Commonwealth…where they would eventually make contact with the Shadow Alliance and join their ranks in the war against the V'tol…and now their brethren as well.


	63. Chapter 63

The _Adamant_ hung in space, adrift between the outer two planets of the Mrsst system as they waited for their counterpart vessel to arrive at the rendezvous point. The system was uninhabited, unwanted, and off the major space lanes…as perfect a spot as any to transfer their precious cargo between ships.

In the deep silence that permeated space a visual explosion of light silently illuminated the aft hull of the _Adamant_ as the _Evanescence_ emerged from hyperspace. The ship was several hundred kilometers away, yet it still briefly bathed the _Adamant_ with a flush of light due to the ship's massive hyperspace reentry window.

The _Evanescence_ was one of three Super Star Destroyers that had found their way into the Shadow Alliance fleet and retasked by Lord Jyr into the role of mobile field bases. So much of the Shadow Alliance's strategy revolved around hit and run tactics that the massive ships were next to useless in current fleet operations.

That said, a 19 kilometer-long warship was hardly useless, but until more conventional warfare came into play the intimidating command ships would have to play a supportive role. In the case of the _Evanescence_, the ship had just been issued new orders by Lord Jyr…it was now to become the temporary home of the Jedi Order.

The remaining Jedi temples had been evacuated and construction crews had been diverted to the SSD to oversee the renovation of several decks that would serve the Jedi as a training center. The survivors from Endor were the last to arrive on the ship, along with Luke who was met immediately upon arrival by Jyr.

Luke raised an eyebrow in his direction. "I didn't think you'd be aboard."

"We need to talk," he said evenly.

Luke nodded once and looked at Jyr questioningly. He wasn't sure whether he meant in private or now.

"I've put this off for some time," Jyr admitted, apparently not concerned about security, "and I'd preferred to have waited longer, but I don't think we can afford to, given recent events."

"Put off what?" Luke asked as they waked side by side behind the younglings as they were led out of the hangar bay into the labyrinth that was the interior of the city-sized ship.

"Changes to the Order."

"Oh?" Luke asked, curious.

"I've compiled a list of 2,000 younglings under the age of 10 that have a midichlorian count of at least 3,000. We need to begin training them as soon as possible, but they have to be trained properly from the start or we'll encounter problems."

Luke stopped mid-stride and held up a hand, signaling for Jyr to do likewise. "Wait a minute…three thousand? That's not high enough for Jedi training. We don't even consider anyone under 7,000."

Jyr shook his head. "As long as they can touch the Force they can be trained. A count of 3,000 is sufficient. They'll have to train longer to raise their counts, but given how few Force-sensitives there are in the galaxy we can't afford to pass up any of them, no matter what their beginning levels are."

"Where did you find 2,000?" Luke asked, astonished. The entire Jedi order numbered barely 10,000, including younglings."

"When we process refugees we include a blood screening."

"By 'we' you mean the Shadow Alliance?"

"Yes."

Luke's eyes narrowed. "You promised these younglings Jedi training without asking me first?"

"No, no," Jyr assured him quickly. Given Jyr's unusual standing, they'd never quite settled on who outranked who…they actually worked together more like brothers than they did Master and Apprentice. "None of them even know the test was conducted. I simply had a list compiled and their current movements tracked amongst the refugee population."

"And you want to train them here?" Luke asked, gesturing to the _Evanescence_.

"Not really," Jyr admitted, "but the complex we're building isn't ready yet. It'll be at least six months until it's marginally operational."

"What complex?"

Jyr lowered his voice. "Something a bit bigger than my training facility, safely hidden away where the Insectoids and the V'tol won't find it."

"Where?" Luke asked, perplexed. Ki hadn't said a word about this before.

Jyr glanced at the other personnel in the corridors and then back at Luke, giving him a subtle shake of his head.

Luke got the message. This wasn't something to discuss within earshot of others. "Why didn't you do this a long time ago, before we met?"

Jyr sighed. "There needs to be one Order and _only_ one Order. Jedi are supposed to interact with each other as brothers and sisters, not rivals."

Luke's mind flashed back to his own sister and a recurrent pang of regret echoed through his memories. _I wish I'd been able to save her_.

Luke blew out a slow breath. "What other changes did you have in mind?"

"Some that we've previously discussed," Jyr said, pulling a small, palm-sized disc out of a hidden pocket in his skintight Jedi garb, "and a lot we didn't."

Jyr activated the small holoprojector as he stepped into a nearby alcove where two corridors crisscrossed each other. A mess of text and icons materialized in blue as Jyr handed the data storage device to Luke.

Luke's eyes narrowed, and he immediately recognized Jyr's handiwork in the revised layout of the Order's organizational structure. "We need to go over this in detail together."

Jyr nodded in agreement. "Just as soon as we get the younglings settled."

* * *

"Ki, they're not going to accept this," Luke warned across the small table in one of the executive suites that housed the ship's command staff.

"I don't care…it needs to happen. The younglings need benchmarks to work towards, real benchmarks, not the watered down versions you're currently using."

"I think you're overcompensating," Luke said dispassionately. "These trials are too hard."

"They need to be, Luke. A Jedi that shies away from training is no Jedi at all."

"How do you expect younglings with a 3,000 count to ever pass the initial trials and become a Padawan? It'll take decades for them to improve that much, if they make it at all."

"So be it," Jyr said bluntly. "We can't walk their path for them, but we can set standards and parameters to guide their growth. A 50 year old Padawan is not a bad thing, Luke. You of all people should be able to recognize how young that really is."

Luke was about to argue the point, but Jyr's logic hit home. "You're still hoping that a lot of them will be able to reach self-sufficiency, aren't you?"

"If they don't try, then they'll never have a chance to succeed. Even if they are only partially successful it will double their lifespans, which will give them even more time to train and grow."

"Sounds like most of the Jedi are going to be holed up inside the temple training for most of their lives."

"As opposed to sending them out into the galaxy unprepared to meet their quick death?" Jyr countered.

"We are not a cloistered Order," Luke reminded him.

Jyr's face scrunched up in disgust. "Don't ever use that word again. Jedi are warriors, but we don't rush into battle foolishly. Given how few of us there are we can't afford to waste personnel, and even if we had millions of Jedi to spare I still wouldn't change our methods. Each individual is valuable and must be treated with a certain deference with regards to the path they walk. You cannot force someone onto the galaxy because the galaxy needs them. You have to wait until the time is right, no matter how frustratingly long that wait might be."

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Another snippet from a conversation with Revan?"

Jyr frowned. "Something like that. Machines are expendable…personnel are not. And I will never view them as such, no matter how dire the situation may become."

Luke sighed. "I don't really disagree with any of this, Ki. I just don't know how well it will work. You're expecting an awful lot out of them."

"If they can't eventually test out, then they don't deserve to be Jedi."

"I know. Where did you pull all this from anyway?"

"A lot comes from my Master's instructions. Some came from the archives, some from me, and even some from you."

That got Luke's attention. "Like what?"

"Did you read through the Code?"

Luke pulled it up again. "Technically that comes from Yoda, not me."

"What about this?" Jyr asked, switching to another piece of text.

"Ok, that one's mine," Luke admitted. "You're probably right about this being something we need to do…I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Why?"

"Putting all the Jedi together in one place seems too risky."

"They'll be safe on Coruscant," Jyr assured him. "I personally mapped out that section of the inner core. Unless the enemy is of a mind to start charting new hyperspace routes at random they'll never find their way in."

"Unless one of your ships is followed," Luke reminded him.

"Not going to happen," Jyr said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. "Only the Warlords and the High Admirals have the necessary star charts to reach the sanctuary zone. Each time we take a convoy in we input the charts into the helm personally and no record of the process in logged in the ship's computer and no coordinates are displayed for the bridge crew to see," Jyr said, fishing a small black data jack from his pocket. He tossed it up and down in front of Luke for emphasis.

"There are also no outside communications possible aside from courier ship between the zone and the rest of the galaxy. These chips are the only link between the two. Without them, the sanctuary zone doesn't exist."

"Is this Coruscant populated?" Luke asked, referring to the code name for the planet in question. Jyr had assigned them cloned names so if anyone ever overheard them being discussed they would assume they were talking about the original worlds by the same name.

"Yes, but they're all my people."

"I thought the Shadow Alliance didn't like to get tied down."

"Coruscant isn't a Shadow Alliance base. It _is_ a member of the Shadow Alliance, but the planet is its own entity, cobbled together from a myriad of refugees and other individuals of skill that I've come across over the past century. The population is low enough that the Jedi complex won't be bothered by them. We'll have a small continent all to ourselves."

"Were the other systems populated the same way?"

"More or less. There are no indigenous populations, if that's what you mean."

Luke shook his head in awe. Just when he though he'd learned all of Jyr's secrets he hits him with the biggest one yet. "Anything else you're holding out on me?"

Jyr smiled easily, the first smile that had crossed his face in days. The war was not going well.

"Possibly."


	64. Chapter 64

Luke and Jyr had the highest ranking Jedi aboard ship meet them in one of the _Evanescence_'s smaller cargo bays, which was devoid of anything aside from a few small stacks of crates. The hundred or so Jedi stood, clustered around the two elders in the center of the bay while they explained their plans for the future of the Order.

"You're revoking our ranks?" Zak Massa asked disbelievingly.

"Yes," Jyr said simply as Luke looked on.

"Isn't that a decision for the entire council to make?" Isi Nes said, his two wide-set eyes narrowed into disapproving slits. "Technically Master Jyr isn't even on the council."

"_Technically_, Master Jyr was a Jedi decades before you were even born," Jyr countered. "I have more experience and skill than all of you combined, save for Skywalker. And because of it, I know exactly how and where your skills are lacking. You are not ready to fight this war. The changes to the Order that we are making will give those we send into combat a fighting chance, as well as insuring that the younglings are trained properly from the beginning. It is difficult to learn the correct way the first time, having to unlearn what you've already erroneous learned makes it ten times more difficult."

Zak turned to Luke. "Are you in agreement with this?"

Jyr walked outside the circle of Jedi at Luke's mental prodding and took up position in front of a wall of crates four meters high. Luke didn't say a word to Zak or the others, but he too walked outside the circle and stopped on its periphery, a dozen or so meters away from Jyr.

Without preamble, yet with all the Jedi in attendance watching, Luke stepped forward sideways with his left foot and thrust his palm forward quickly, unleashing a Force wave towards Jyr.

The stacks of crates behind him broke apart and flew backwards like tumbleweeds, but Jyr barely moved ten centimeters.

"Until you learn to do that," Luke said, his voice filling the cargo bay, "you will not carry the rank of Knight."

He looked at Zak. "Can you? Or you?" he said, glancing at Isi. "Or any of you?"

"Defending yourself against a Force blast," Jyr said, rejoining the group, "was a basic technique in the Old Order that was lost on the New Order, along with many other things."

"Jyr was trained in the ways of the Old Order," Luke said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "He brings with him many techniques and perspectives that have been sorely missed since the Jedi purge."

Luke released his shoulder and walked to the center of the circle, his chin dipping slightly. "I also made many mistakes when reestablishing the Order, some of which I've only recently realized."

"But that's not the all of it," Luke continued. "There were several flaws with the Old Order. Flaws that were passed onto me through the limited instruction I received. Flaws that I then passed onto you. Given recent insights, I've realized that there is no way to reconcile the two points of view. The only way to correct the problems with the Order is to wipe the slate clean and start over again."

"That said, not everything will change, but it will feel like it has. Don't fear the changes…embrace the challenge. For centuries the Order has been lacking key components, and given the changes we're implementing _immediately_, you'll soon find yourself more of a Jedi than you were before."

"More of a Jedi?" Arynn Teor asked skeptically.

"It's true," Rata said from the back row. "You don't realize how blind you are until you make the first breakthrough, then the Force opens up to you," she turned to Luke and bowed slightly, coming up with a small smile. "And I can block a Force blast, Master, just not one of that magnitude."

Luke smiled back and mimicked her bow. "I stand corrected."

"Rata," Jyr said, addressing the Mirialan, "those of you who have passed the Avenger tests have passed the Knight trials…they are one in the same. That's why we didn't recall them from their assignments. You are free to return to the field or stay here for additional training. The choice is yours. The rest of you, however, will remain here until you pass the Knight trials. To send you into battle any earlier would be reckless."

"What are _your_ ranks then?" Zak asked in a subdued tone.

"We are both Knights," Jyr answered. "We can pass the Masters' trials, but we don't have the time to spare. We're the two most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, our place is on the front lines, taking the most difficult assignments."

Luke was genuinely surprised by that, though he didn't let it show. He'd thought Jyr was going to request that he stay here and retrain the Jedi, something that he didn't really want to do.

Not that he minded teaching, but with a galaxy at war he didn't like sitting on the sidelines while others fought and died in situations where he might have been able to make a difference. Apparently Jyr was of a similar mind.

"But know this," Jyr said, raising a hand to get more of their attention, "the rank of Master is not the highest rank in the Order anymore. To say that one is a Master is a disservice to the true Masters of pastimes…Jedi who would outmatch even myself and Skywalker in certain areas."

"Under the new structure those ancient Jedi would have earned prestige ranks for their area of expertise. There are eleven such ranks, with specific trials for each, above and beyond those required for the rank of Jedi Master."

"A Range Master is a Jedi with extremely high agility and speed. Their ability to cross great distances in short periods of time, as well as to navigate difficult terrain with ease is extremely useful on a widespread battlefield or in close quarters where it is necessary to make long chains of small, precise movements in order to maintain the advantage. Range Masters will also be trained to dodge blaster bolts rather than blocking them. Currently neither Skywalker nor myself can qualify for this rank."

"A Jedi Infiltrator is an individual skilled in stealth. They can move through areas undetected where we could not. They can strike from hiding, then return to anonymity and move elsewhere, a lurking, unseen threat on the battlefield that will confuse and frustrate the enemy. They can also shield their presence from Force detection, potentially walking up behind you without even a whisper of their aura reaching your senses to alert you to their presence. They are a shadow, choosing when and where to reveal themselves. Though Skywalker is far more skilled in this area than me, neither of us can pass the trials for a Jedi Infiltrator."

"Of the three Jedi classes, Guardian, Consular, and Sentinel, it is the Sentinel class that has been the most undefined and misunderstood of the three. We are correcting that by adding a fourth class…the Jedi Scout, signified by an orange blade. The stealth aspects formerly associated with the Sentinel are now those of a Scout, along with other survival and reconnaissance skills. The Sentinel is now simply a troubleshooter with skills from the other three classes. They are the class-less class, capable of all areas, but masters of none."

"The next prestige rank is that of Scout Master, and is an extremely advanced form of the Jedi Scout. They master the art of staying undetected without the benefit of stealth. Their movement capabilities are intertwined with the available terrain, and they know how to use both to their advantage on the battlefield and the frontier. Again, neither of us can currently achieve this rank."

"The Flight Master is an expert pilot, capable of aerial and space combat that only one with Force senses and reflexes is capable of. A Flight Master is also capable of flying and fighting in almost any spacecraft, with proficiency tests in over two hundred different types. I know that my skills are not sufficient to pass these trials, and I believe that Luke would have to put in a lot of extra training to run even a chance of passing."

Luke nodded in agreement.

"The Blade Master is a lightsaber master, pure and simple. I am close to achieving this rank, but I am lacking in a few key requirements and I don't believe I'm going to have time to train for them anytime soon. And if you didn't already know, I can take Luke with a blade fairly easy."

Luke laughed. "I don't know about 'easy,' but you've definitely had an advantage each time we've sparred."

"The Weapon Master," Jyr continued, "is like the Flight Master, in that they are proficient with many designs. The Weapon Master uses many weapons, including lightsabers, stunsabers, stunrods, blast pikes, vibroblades, explosives, darts, edge blades, blasters, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, etc. They will be measured for their proficiency with each, and must obtain a minimum degree of comfort with all noted types. Neither Luke nor myself are anywhere close to this one."

"A Battle Master is an expert at using nothing but their fists and the Force in combat. Unlike the previous two Guardian-related ranks, this prestige rank is all about unarmed combat. Most of you have no idea what a Jedi is truly capable of unarmed, you're so used to carrying a lightsaber that you feel uncomfortable without one."

"Mind you, that if you faced a Battle Master your lightsaber would do you little good. They would keep you at range and attack you through the Force. One prerequisite for this rank is Force Lightning. In order to achieve this you must first master your emotions, lest you will be unable to summon the power absent the presence of the darkside. While I'm decent in this area, Rey-len Tarren is by far the most skilled, given the situation she was forced to endure. I image that once she fully recovers that she will be able to pass this prestige rank's trials."

"What of Revan?" Isi asked in a whisper. Revan had almost become a taboo subject amongst the Jedi.

Jyr sighed. "Revan is a powerful Force-sensitive, but he is not a Jedi. You need to understand that simply using the Force doesn't make you a Jedi, we are more than that. We are allied to the lightside, regardless of our level of connection to it. We do not use it as a tool, it is who we are. Revan uses the Force as his tool, and rarely the lightside. He askews both the lightside and the darkside, preferring to draw from the medium as if he were drawing a blaster from a holster. He and others like him are not our brothers, they are erroneously called gray Jedi, for that is a contradiction in terms. In order to be a Jedi you must be allied to the lightside, and working to forever increase your connection to it."

"Also, Jedi are more powerful than the grays. The farther to either spectrum one gets, the more easily the Force flows through them. This is why the 'darkside is stronger' myth began. The Jedi of that time restricted themselves out of fear of the darkside, thus their alignment to the lightside was nil. When one of them crossed over to the darkside they no longer restricted themselves and moved deeper into alignment with the darkside than they had ever been with the lightside. So, from their point of view the darkside was stronger than the light."

"Grays don't have an alignment, or very little of one, thus their base Force powers are lower than average. They can raise them with training like everyone else, like Revan did, but they don't have the advantage of either the lightside or the darkside in terms of raw power."

Jyr pointed to Luke. "His midi-chlorian count jumped by the thousands when he trained with me. Part of that was the intensity of the training, but a lot of it was because he stopped hesitating, stopped restricting himself out of fear of the darkside and started trusting himself and his feelings. When he did that his connection to the lightside was unblocked and he saw a massive surge in both power and ability."

Jyr pointed at Rata. "Those Jedi who have gone through the Avenger training have seen similar progress on a lesser scale. In all cases, undoing their self-restraint has caused a shift in their alignment deeper into the lightside. The greater connection caused a training-like surge in their abilities and midi-chlorian count. It's like all of a sudden they were able to run twice as fast as normal in training, and because of that the caliber of their workouts increase dramatically and cause a huge adaptation, much like that of a rookie getting their first taste of training."

Zak nodded, finally making the connection. "So Revan limits himself, unless he turns to the darkside."

"Yes," Jyr answered curtly, "but even then, it will take a long time for his darkside alignment to deepen, just as it does our lightside alignment. You can't cheat in either direction, but if Revan does turn to the darkside he will get a significant power boost in the weeks to follow, then his development will continue through training as normal…until the darkside kills his self-sufficiency and he begins to deteriorate. I think that's the primary reason he's stayed gray."

"If he hadn't forsaken the ways of the Jedi, could he have achieved the rank of Battle Master?" Rata asked, curious.

"I don't think so," Jyr answered, wavering. "Battle Master requires several very specific skills, some of which Revan didn't display, but I do believe his skills are somewhere in the vicinity of Tarren's."

"What of the other ranks?" Zak asked.

"War Master is the art of strategy and organization. My Warlords possess such skills, though our connection to the Force allows us to go a bit further than they can. Revan does possess skills such as these, but they are perverted through his belief that sacrifice is essential to saving the most lives."

"I know otherwise, because I do possess this set of skills, yet I don't have the time to test out. This is how I was able to put together the Shadow Alliance, and I've gained a great deal of experience in this discipline. Revan is not a War Master, he is the darkside equivalent. Even if he doesn't draw on the darkside, he uses its techniques and strategies, and is probably implementing them right now, building his own army to fight the V'tol…and perhaps one day us."

Luke looked at him in surprise. "You know where he is?"

Jyr looked at Luke sympathetically. "Yes, but I didn't want to bother you with it. He's out of our reach, anyway."

"Where is he?" Luke asked resolutely.

Jyr sighed. "My contact in the Rishi Maze informed me of his appearance there."

"What was the part about his army, then?" Luke asked, sensing something important that Jyr was withholding.

Jyr gnawed on his lip for a moment, then decided it was pointless in hiding it now. "He's seized control of the Empire, and is building them up for a strike against the V'tol someday in the future."

"What?!" Luke asked/yelled along with half a dozen others. "The Empire is long since dead."

Jyr shook his head. "No, they escaped the galaxy and rebuilt in the Rishi Maze. They've reestablished themselves there with an isolationist philosophy. I discovered them in my vain search for the phantom threat before it appeared. I established amicable ties with them and kept a line of communication open that has been infrequently used over the years."

"The last communiqué that I received before the link went dead told of a Jedi's appearance and overthrow of the Imperial command."

Luke clenched his fist. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"There was nothing to do, Luke. We've got bigger problems to deal with."

"And you didn't think I could handle the information?"

"No," Jyr said plainly. "It would have distracted you from your training."

Luke worked his jaw around. "I hate it when you're right like that."

Jyr smiled. "Get used to it."

Rata interrupted then. "Master Jyr, you said you could pass the War Master trials?"

"Yes, but again I don't have the time. Luke and I have already passed the Knight trials due to our previous training scores, but for the time being that's where we will stay. As of now, there are no Jedi Masters in the galaxy, only a few dozen Knights."

"Please continue," she said, thoroughly hooked. Of all the Jedi, she and Kas were the most enthusiastic when it came to challenges.

"The Jedi Arbiter is like the War Master in that they don't directly pull on Force powers, but rather use their wits and senses to accomplish their aims. The Arbiter is an expert at negotiation due to their organizational skills. They can arrange agreements that do not compromise either side, and can arrange settlements that benefit each, or at least preserve the status quo. Sacrifice is at the very heart of the darkside, and compromise is just a lesser form. The Arbiter knows this well, and is skilled at finding ways around situations that appear to necessitate compromise. They also know that negotiation will not always work. They know when negotiation becomes useless and fighting becomes necessary and will not hesitate between the two. This is another example of why all Jedi must be combat proficient. And again, no Jedi is currently capable of passing the Arbiter trials."

"A Jedi Warden is the antithesis of a Scout Master, in that a Warden senses threats and events afar, while the Scout Master's senses are attuned to the immediate area. A Warden possesses what some call the 'far seeing' ability as well as more prominent precognition, though this cannot be tested for. A Warden is especially good at sensing activity at a medium range and being able to give specifics about what is happening. On a larger stage, a Warden will often sense danger across the galaxy, whereas other Jedi cannot attune their senses at such a great range. I have some ability in this area, but not enough to pass the trials. Luke fairs a bit better at medium range, but can't pass the trials either."

"The last of the prestige ranks is that of the Jedi Empath. They focus on telepathy and other person to person connections through the Force. Reading minds and emotions, altering perceptions, communicating with another over light years, battlemind techniques, etc. These trials and their training require the assistance of others, but the measurements are still objective. I have a long list of Shadow Alliance soldiers who wish to participate in such training, if for no other reason to train their minds to resist Force influence, but I can tell you that they hold the Jedi in significant esteem and wish to assist us in whatever way they can."

"Lastly, if anyone should ever achieve _three_ prestige ranks they will attain the highest rank of Grand Master, which earns them the right to carry the pink blade."

"Pink?" Zak asked. Several other Jedi had the same quizzical looks as he did.

"If you like," Jyr said, smiling. "A Grand Master can carry a blade of whatever color they want aside from red and white. If you earn a prestige rank you get a gold blade, by the way."

"What's wrong with red and white?" Zak asked. "Don't you and Luke carry white blades? Why is that anyway?"

"I know some of you carry red blades," Jyr said, "and you do so to reclaim the color from the Sith or because you just like the look, but before the Sith ever existed the red color was reserved for those Jedi that left the Order. A red blade signified that they had no connection to the Order whatsoever. When the Sith were formed by exiled Jedi, they took up the red blade as their own, and it has been known as such ever since. So those of you with the red blades, change them to your class colors, please."

Jyr looked at Luke briefly. "The reason why Skywalker and I carry white blades is because we've progressed to a point where we are pure lightside. I know that of all the changes to the Order this may be the hardest concept for you to swallow, but just as one can be pure darkside, one can also be pure lightside. This cannot be tested for, and to carry a white blade is quite the feat of arrogance if it isn't entirely true."

Jyr pulled out his lightsaber and ignited the white blade. "This blade and Skywalker's are probably the only ones you're ever going to see. Total alignment is exceedingly rare, more so than even self-sufficiency, but you all have the potential to get there some day. Now, don't mistake this as meaning that I and Skywalker can't increase our connection to the Force…we can, but we can't get any more lightside than we are now. The darkside can't corrupt us, it can't even touch us, but it does want to kill us, even more than all of you."

Luke nodded. "The more you become one with the lightside, the more you will attract the attention of those who use the darkside, whether they be sentients or beasts. Zak, you remember the time on Sullust with those overgrown rodents?"

"Yes, Master," he said cringing, "I remember. They mostly attacked you."

"At the time we thought that was because I was stronger in the Force, but now I'm thinking that was only part of it. I think my stronger connection to the lightside drew them to me more than you."

"Occupational hazard," Rata commented.

"If any of you ever reach this point and one with a white blade is living, they will bestow it upon you, just as I did with Skywalker," Jyr said cautiously. "If there are none with a white blade, be very, very sure before you grant it upon yourself. It is not a thing to take lightly."

"At least we know it's possible," Rata said sincerely. "Before now we hadn't even considered it."

"And that was your biggest disadvantage of all," Jyr pointed out. "Ignorance is something the Jedi Order cannot tolerate. We must teach each other what we learn, refine it, and format it so that we can instruct the younglings as they develop. The darkside uses ignorance as its primary tool to unwittingly ensnare misguided Jedi into its grasp. The more we can teach them, the more they will be able to resist the ways of the darkside during their early years when they are most vulnerable to its manipulation."

Luke nodded his agreement. "Now, as to the new format of the Jedi counsel…"


	65. Chapter 65

On the outskirts of the Mon Calamari system a Shadow Alliance _Infiltrator_-class scout ship reverted to realspace in a brief white flash and blur of pseudomotion. Its black-armored hull blotted out a few stars with its tiny silhouette, but no one was near enough to take notice. The pilot of the Infiltrator had deliberately entered the system beyond the range of V'tol sensors, which he knew for a fact extended out several million kilometers from the water-world, based on the encounter data from his last four runs.

A moment after exiting hyperspace the Infiltrator's silhouette vanished with a few twinkling stars taking its place. Once completely obscured by its cloaking device the ship began its slow journey insystem.

Cloaking devices of this caliber were both expensive and rare, but cloaks in general were common on the fringes with most going to private enterprises or well financed intelligence divisions. Large-scale cloaks for capital ships had gone out of style centuries ago, and the technology had reverted back to the clandestine side of space travel…such as the communications run that Commander Renst was currently attempting.

His mark-7 cloak wasn't perfect, nor was anyone else's. A perfect cloaking device was next to useless, due to the double-blind nature of the technology. Conventional cloaks allowed for a certain spectrum to pass through the cloaking field, allowing for navigation through limited passive sensors. Others used sensor dampening effects that created a 'hole' in space, devoid of any detectable radiation. This type of cloaking field was useful at range, but was easily betrayed by backlighting its dark silhouette.

Renst's Infiltrator was equipped with the former version, and allowed just enough ultra low band radiation through to chart out planetary bodies and stars. A _very_ short range active sensor field was also running through the same low bands in order to prevent the Infiltrator from bumping into any nearby objects.

On its face this level of sensor suppression was recklessly dangerous, but the mark-7 cloaking field was the only way to get within transmission range of Mon Calamari without tipping off the V'tol too early. Renst had made a previous run with a mark-6 cloaking field generator and had been detected before he even made high orbit.

No, the recklessness of a mark-7 was the only way to get close enough for a few minutes of conversation with the submerged Jedi temple before the V'tol moved to intercept and drive the ship off. He had to get his holocom relay within 800 kilometers in order to bypass the dampening effect of the ocean water.

And in order to do that he had to make orbit…right next to the patrolling V'tol warships.

* * *

Bes-no Korra was in the temple's situation room watching the hologram of an ongoing battle on the sea floor between Quarren and V'tol submersibles when the transmission came through. He was relieved to see both the incoming transmission icon flare to life above the board as well as the KIA markers for another two of the ungainly V'tol watercraft. Once again, the Quarren were more than holding their own against the invaders.

Bes-no quickly hit the receive key, knowing their time would be limited. Over the battle display Luke's hologram glowed to life.

"Two minutes," Luke said without preamble.

"The V'tol are attempting to enhance their submersible fleet with what we believe to be Mon Cal designs," Bes-no began to immediately report. "We've engaged two medium-sized craft and found them to be more formidable than expected, but not yet up to the caliber of our own defense craft. We're currently launching an offensive against what we believe is one of their shipyards. So far the battle is going well."

"Did you receive our last supply run?" Luke asked.

Bes-no shook his head. "No, the V'tol intercepted one on reentry and beat us to the drop coordinates on the second. Are you willing to try another drop?"

"We are. I'm transmitting coordinates as well as a galactic update."

"Likewise," Bes-no said, sending their own preplanned message packet detailing the status of the war beneath the waves. While the V'tol had brilliantly taken the surface facilities of the planet, they had proved inept underwater…but the enemy was adapting fast, probably due to the efforts of captured Mon Calamari technicians, judging by the designs of their latest handiwork.

Soon after taking the surface of the planet the V'tol had landed two large floating constructs of their own and launched submersibles from within their holding bays in a futile attempt to attack the Jedi temple. Their shield generators had easily held up against the V'tol attacks, as did the shields for the seven Mon Cal floating cities that had managed to escape beneath the waves before the orbital bombardment breached their watertight hulls.

Whether or not the V'tol were aware of the Quarren cities on the ocean floor was debatable, but to date the V'tol hadn't been able to take or destroy a single Quarren seafloor outpost. Their formidable fleet of submersibles had kept the V'tol confined to the regions around the captive Mon Cal cities and their two smaller imitations, allowing the Jedi temple to move freely across the ocean floor with the might of the water above protecting it from any further attacks from orbit.

The Jedi had gradually moved the temple to one of the Quarren seafloor cities and settled down beside it a few kilometers distant. Together, the Jedi, free Mon Calamari, and the Quarren had banded together into a formidable resistance group that was exploiting the V'tol's underwater disadvantage for all it was worth. As it was, the V'tol's on planet resources were minimal, given that the Mon Calamari had relied heavily on the Quarren miners in that regard, but also because the resistance fighters had managed to take back six Mon Cal seafloor bases that had been connected to their "mother cities" above.

The resistance had invaded through the back door, boarding the bases with Jedi led strike groups and capturing the facilities before the V'tol realized what was happening. The boarding parties cut free the surface umbilicals, denying the V'tol their captured cities' seafloor footholds.

The enemy had quickly reinforced the remaining footholds and had been viciously protecting them against repeated resistance attacks through sheer numbers, which the resistance was steadily whittling down. Only recently had the V'tol began fielding larger, more capable designs in addition to their swarm-like fleets.

Bes-no and others had traced the manufacture of these new ships to three other subsurface facilities that had formerly been Mon Calamari outposts. One of those three was the location of the current engagement being relayed back to the Jedi temple by several of the large Quarren command submersibles charging through the V'tol lines in an attempt to get at the facility itself.

"We're holding our own pretty good, Luke," Bes-no assured him, "but we still can't risk sticking our heads above the surface with their fleet in orbit, and I don't see how we ever will."

"As long as you can hold the seafloor I suggest you dig in and make like permanent residents. We're not going to be able to retake Mon Calamari anytime soon. Plan on at least a decade, if not longer."

Bes-no frowned. "That's not what I wanted to hear."

"I know," Luke said softly. "We're still working on an exfiltration craft. When we get one that can break through the V'tol blockade we'll start evacuating the younglings, one at a time if necessary."

"Any timetable on that?"

Luke's hologram glanced off to the left, and Bes-no knew their time was about to run out. "Maybe a year."

Bes-no nodded. "We'll hold as long as it takes."

Luke smiled. "May the Force be with you, my friend."

The transmission cut out as the Infiltrator broke from orbit, reestablished its cloak, and ran like hell from the penetrating V'tol sensors.

Bes-no echoed the sentiment in silence as his eyes were drawn back to the ongoing battle.

"Dig in," he repeated in a whisper as he watched the Quarren heavies begin assaulting the improvised shipyard. "Dig in deep and weather the storm."


	66. Chapter 66 Forest Island

"General Skywalker, we'll be in position in thirty seconds. Are you sure you still want to go through with this, sir?"

Luke glanced toward the Raptor's pilot, seeing little but the back of his flight helmet from the cramped confines of the auxiliary second 'seat' that sat in the modified astromech niche directly behind the pilot's cocoon.

"I'm sure," Luke said evenly. "What's the airspace look like?"

"Four bogeys on the far edge of the shield, rising to intercept," he reported. "We'll beat them to the drop point, but I still think you're going to be target practice on the way down, sir."

"Don't worry, pilot. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Just make sure you get yourself clear as soon as I'm away."

"Don't have to tell me twice, sir. I keep expecting the fleet to restart bombardment at any moment. Ten seconds, sir. Opening the top hatch."

The matte black Raptor opened its circular hatch mid flight, then peeled back across the top of Luke's head to expose the astromech niche, which was normally fully obscured from space by four centimeters of armor plating. Luke loosened himself from his cramped position and placed his hands on the small lip that surrounded his shoulders.

"We're over the target, sir."

Luke sucked in a quick, steadying breath. "Now!"

The pilot tipped the ship on its side as Luke pulled upward with his arms, propelling himself out of the astromech niche. By the time Luke cleared the fighter it was completely inverted, with Luke actually flinging himself down toward the ground in a blur of Force-enhanced motion. As soon as he was clear of the tiny ship, the Raptor reengaged its shields and angled back the way it came in the face of the Insectoid fighters just edging into firing range…two of which diverted and chased after the falling cargo that the Raptor had just dropped off.

* * *

Luke fell awkwardly in freefall for a couple of seconds before he got his limbs extended and used them to stabilize his descent through the thin 10km high air above the Insectoid base, which was neatly ringed by a half-kilometer wide corridor burned out of the jungle by the guns of the Shadow Alliance fleet hovering above in low orbit.

The Insectoid base had its energy shield covering their surface foothold with sufficient deflective power to hold off any reasonable amount of orbital bombardment, but in order for their troops to begin conquering the sparsely inhabited planet, they had to fan out through the forest unprotected.

Warlord Etis, who had personally taken command of the battle to reclaim Endor, had ordered his fleet to burn the half kilometer kill zone directly around the shield perimeter. This had limited the enemy's vexing ability to move through forest terrain as easily as they did an open expanse. This was the Insectoids' preferred battlefield, and Etis had decided to change the layout of the battlefield before his ground troops were overrun.

Shadow Alliance scouts had been dispatched around the edges of the kill zone with a direct line of communication to fleet command so that they could call down orbital bombardment on any activity within the kill zone at a moment's notice. Initially this tactic had kept the Insectoids bottled up within their base, but the bugs soon found a way around the Warlord's tactic.

They expanded their limited network of subsurface tunnels to extend beyond the kill zone and rise up at random points in the surrounding forest. To date, most of the fighting between ground forces had been to control these surface exits. The massive number of Corellian troops deployed on Endor had acquitted themselves well in this regard, while the limited number of Shadow Alliance troops provided the reconnaissance and cohesive organization for the 2 million-strong combined force headquartered out of the abandoned Jedi temple.

The limited capacity of the tunnels to move troops and the aggressive counter-defense had seen the allied forces whether the onslaught of Insectoid reinforcements that suddenly appeared once their egg satchels had hatched. Never before had a ground force survived this long against an Insectoid occupation army that had succeeded in raising its primary deflector shield.

So for Etis this was new territory. He didn't know if the wave of Insectoids would be the only one, the first of several, or if the Insectoids had brought with them some form of bug capable of laying additional eggs. Was time on their side, or was it working against them? He didn't know, and given their lack of a means of penetrating the Insectoids' shield, the Warlord's forces were fighting for, at best, a stalemate…and that was unacceptable.

That was when Luke had volunteered himself to return to Endor and aid in the assault on the Insectoid base. They desperately needed a victory over the Insectoids, if for no other reason than to deny them another valuable world, but they also needed to prove that it was possible to retake a world that the Insectoids had already sunk their claws into. So far in this galactic war, that had not been the case.

Luke noticed the pair of distant specs divert his way and angled his trajectory from a belly-first fall into a faster, head-first speed dive. Below him he could clearly see the ring of destruction surrounding the circle of greenery that was being protected by an invisible energy shield…one that stopped both energy and projectile bombardment, which meant that his body would also be deflected should he try and come down on top of it.

So he angled his fall toward the edge of the shield, monitoring both the approaching fighters and his distance to the surface through his widely expanded senses. He felt the wind thicken as he moved through progressively denser levels of the atmosphere and inwardly cringed as his speed began to reduce prematurely.

When the piercing whine of the fighters' engines came within earshot Luke spread out his body, jerking himself into a slower fall rate, then he rolled over onto his back and fell butt-first through Endor's atmosphere. When he did this, the approaching fighters became visible on his upper left.

Luke cradled both hands over his chest, using his extended elbows to partially stabilize his fall. Between his palms he summoned a crackle of Force-lightning and contained it in a glowing blue orb. He increased its power for another ten seconds before launching it up over his shoulder toward one of the fighters.

When he did so, he careened out of control, rolling head over heels twice before tucking up into a ball and resetting himself. He immediately dove down again, going head-first for maximum speed as his burst of Force-lighting stretched out from its containment ball into a long lance of destructive blue energy.

It missed by ten meters, but caused both fighters to go evasive. That single disruption gave Luke a needed distraction and a bit of distance on them at the same time. Even though he knew it wouldn't fool their sensors, Luke covered himself with a Force cloak of invisibility as he plummeted like a bullet towards the surface. He kept a faint contact with the fighters now both above and behind him, but directed most of his senses to the kill zone beneath him and to where exactly his fall was going to take him.

Luke redirected his line of descent using the angle of his body against the wind to propel himself laterally while using his hands as rudders to fine-tune his trajectory. When he was a kilometer from the ground he released his invisibility and redirected his energy into a very long Force "bubble" between himself and the surface, using it to slow his descent. The closer to the ground he got the more intense the bubble became and the more he slowed. Unfortunately the nature of the bubble was that it was incapable of expanding and propelling Luke like a repulsorlift coil, but it did remarkable well as a crash bag in allowing the Jedi Knight to jump from heights without a chute or personal lift coil.

Luke redirected the angle of the compression of the 'bubble' and used his Force Drift ability to land him in the debris field fifty meters from the edge of the Insectoids' deflector shield…which ended a few dozen meters above the treetops, allowing unfettered surface movement in and out of the Insectoid base.

His white blade snapped to life before he'd even hit the ground. Two Insectoids on the edge of the forest 'island' took potshots at him as he fell, then retreated back into the trees once he hit the ground and charged after them, deflecting shots as he came.

Luke felt more Insectoids nearby that these two were retreating towards and decided to take the pair quickly before they had a chance to hook up with the others and combine their collective fire against his single blade. He reached forward with his left hand and pulled the two towards him through the air with a hefty jerk. His connection to them ended after a few dozen meters, leaving them ballistic for the second half of their flight. He cut through one before it hit the ground, then spun on his heels, directing a nearly point blank blaster bolt back into the thorax of the other Insectoid.

He stepped toward it as it fell and quickly cut off its head. The Shadow Alliance ground troops had discovered early on that the Insectoids responded to injuries differently than humans did, so they'd adopted the policy of 'two deathblows per bug' just to be on the safe side, which they'd passed onto the Jedi along with other valuable intel about their new enemies.

Instead of running towards the others in the forest, Luke ran around them in an evasive pattern designed to get him further into the occupied 'island' while the Corellian troops staged a massive invasion on the opposite side of the Insectoid encampment. With any luck, the troops near Luke would be recalled to the other side of the base, making it a little easier for the 2nd most powerful Jedi in the galaxy to accomplish his seemingly suicidal mission…to single-handedly destroy the Insectoids' energy shield generator and allow the orbiting fleet to blast the base into oblivion.


	67. Chapter 67

After a few minutes of stealthing between the thick trunks of Endor's oversized forest Luke began to encounter some small Insectoid buildings. They weren't much larger than small huts, but they had a well worn dirt path connecting them back towards the center of the 'forest island.'

So far he'd been able to avoid line of sight contact with any more Insectoids, due in part to the raging battle on the other side of the Insectoid base which he could clearly hear despite being several kilometers away. However, his good fortune also left him wondering if the Force invisibility that he had deployed around himself as he ran through the forest would hold up against Insectoid eyes.

His invisibility was mainly focused on the visual light spectrum, which he'd extended down to include most infrared, but not all species saw in the same spectrum of light, so he wasn't sure how effective his newly honed skills would be, nor did he know if their sense of scent would detect his presence, and if it did, at what range.

He would have liked to establish some baseline parameters before he got into the thick of the Insectoid base, but as it was he was moving through the forest with ease, and hadn't yet had the opportunity to test his stealth skills on a live target.

Luke pulled up behind another gigantic tree trunk and stood motionless as he focused on amplifying his hearing. Over the sounds of distant battle he heard faint traces of machinery, but couldn't place their location. He took a quick glance around, not completely trusting his Force senses, but he didn't see anything out of place.

One small Insectoid bunker was visible in the distance, but nothing alive was near it…on the surface anyway. The bugs had a knack for tunneling underground and could rise up at any point within the forest where they had a concealed exit.

This bunker wasn't concealed at all, but Luke still felt something amiss. He focused his senses again, trying to find something wrong but he couldn't.

He glanced up at the tree branches far above his head. _When on Endor…make like an Ewok._

Luke released his invisibility, needing to summon his power for another task. He bent his knees and crouched down, briefly touching his right hand fingertips to the soft, moist dirt. With one sudden jerk he jumped straight up, so fast leaving the ground that he appeared as a blur until gravity slowed his ascent and he peaked out just above the lowest branches.

Luke caught himself at the top, using his Force Drift ability to gently glide down atop one of the meter-wide branches at the base when it extruded from the trunk. He settled his footing on the curved surface and let his shoulder armor rest against the massive trunk that continued up twice again as high as he currently was.

His light armor gently molded itself against the ribs in the tree bark, not making the distinctive clanking sounds that the ballistic plates of heavy armor were notorious for. Lacking a helmet, but otherwise sheathed in a green/black armored body suit, Luke got his bearings amongst the treetops and sighted another branch on a nearby tree, this one slightly higher up.

Jumping high into the air again, he caught himself at the peak of his jump and drifted down to the far branch, landed, set his footing, sighted another branch in the direction of 'island' center and repeated the jump again, and again, and again.

It was slow going, but the route he was taking kept him clear of any surprises the bugs might have on the surface for uninvited guests, such as trip mines, hidden proximity turrets, 'scout' burrows, and other nasty tricks that the Shadow Alliance had encountered on other worlds invaded by the Insectoids.

As soon as he was moving through the branches the small danger-sense in the back of his mind abated and he felt clear to move on with a bit more haste. He continued moving higher and higher as he jumped from one branch to the next out of both instinct and curiosity. He knew first hand that the Insectoids were great jumpers, but to date he hadn't heard of any climbing trees.

If his hunch was correct, and he really hoped it was, the Insectoids wouldn't have prepared defenses up in the treetops because they knew Humans and the other species that they'd encountered moved strictly on the surface, not below or above it, which gave the bugs an advantage because they could move both on and below the surface, making them very hard to pin down.

Human or not, Luke was a Jedi and that gave him additional options. While he wasn't exactly a digger suited to tunneling under the ground, he was both agile and powerful enough to move above the forest floor...another point of proof for Jyr's contention that the Jedi were the galaxy's one and only advantage in this multi-faceted war.

Luke had agreed with him then, but circumstances like this kept popping up to reinforce the point. He was glad that Jyr had insisted on making changes to the Order. This was where a Jedi was supposed to be…in the thick of the action, in the danger, where one could make a difference…not stuck back inside an academy teaching or lecturing or meditating like so many Jedi had done once they reached the rank of 'Master,' Luke included.

Of the seven centuries that he'd lived, he often wondered how many of them had been wasted. If he'd only known half of what he knew now back then…it frustrated him to no end how far he could have come by this point if circumstances hadn't been what they were. Jyr had accomplished far more than him in just a century and a half.

But the past was done and over, and Luke was on the correct path now with the correct rank of Jedi Knight. He wasn't a Master, yet. When the time came he'd earn that title, not bestow it on himself like he had done eons before out of ignorance.

As competitive as Luke was, he was actually enjoying being #2 amongst the Jedi. He was no longer leading the way and could focus on _being_ a Jedi rather than teaching others to be Jedi.

Right now he felt more of a Jedi than he ever had before. The Force flowed through him with a crystal clarity, bringing with it both a power and a control that he'd never had access to before. He felt refreshed and alive, both from the changes within him and the dangers surrounding him.

_I really am a Jedi. No strings attached, no exceptions, no 'all circumstances considered,' nothing fake, nothing exaggerated, nothing wanting. My skills are finally complete._

He sucked in a quick, deep breath of the forest air as the truth of his statement fully hit him, and let the release of that small breath take with it the last vestiges of self doubt and the burden of leadership that had been clinging around his neck like a noose.

_I am a Jedi,_ he repeated to himself again and again as he moved through the treetops, finally feeling free to be himself.

* * *

The Shadow Alliance Warlords were assembled in holographic council again as they reviewed the report of a recent reconnaissance run into Coruscant.

"The probe droid was destroyed upon entering orbit," a lower level officer reported via a smaller hologram at circle's center, "but it succeeded in pulling a partial surface scan of the planet whereas our previous attempts had failed. What we found from a detailed analysis of the probe droid's last transmission is the reason I signaled for the emergency summons."

"As you were supposed to," Jyr said approvingly, "if the information was vital."

The officer nodded emphatically. "It is, my Lord. We've known for centuries that Coruscant and other heavily industrialized worlds carried the potential for extreme production of military hardware, yet to date that power has never been fully exploited."

"What are they building?" Warlord Arcane asked ominously.

The officer brought up the probe droid's surface scan, with several positions highlighted. "Though we only succeeded in obtaining a partial scan of the surface, we detected one thousand three hundred and forty four identical sites."

The image zoomed in at an even greater degree until the Warlords could clearly see the outline of a surface shipyard slip…with a triangular ribcage housed within.

"You said there were 1300 such facilities?" Warlord Sevis asked in a whisper. She knew how bad this was.

"That we've seen. If the distribution holds true for the entire planet, we estimate over 7,000 such single-slip shipyards on Coruscant alone. We don't yet have data on any of the other captured industrial worlds."

"Do you have an estimate on time to completion?" Warlord Darr asked.

"Two years," he said without hesitation, "if they push traditional Star Destroyer production schedules to their limits."

"Two years," Warlord Revoris said in disbelief.

Warlord Etis's hologram turned to face someone only he could see. He turned back with a straight jaw. "My apologies, I must take my leave. The shield on Endor has just fallen."


	68. Chapter 68

The bisected bodies of two Insectoids dropped to the ground alongside four dozen others, giving Luke a brief moment to himself in front of the fifty meter high, fat spire that was the Insectoids' shield generator. Power conduits fed it from four different generators spaced equidistantly around its perimeter. Luke stood in between the southernmost generator and the central spire, ten meters away from a thick power conduit.

He knew better than to cut into the conduit with his lightsaber. Force or no, he'd be fried within half a second. Besides, he needed to destroy the shield emitters, not the power generators, which could be replaced by the drives of the Insectoids' grounded starships. As far as intel was concerned, the bugs had only brought one massive shield generator with them, and if he took it out they'd be sitting ducks for the fleet's orbital guns.

Luke doubted he had long before more reinforcements flooded into the courtyard. He had to act quickly before he got engaged in a long, drawn out battle that would probably end badly for him. There was next to no cover in this portion of the Insectoid base, and his one lightsaber could block only so many blaster bolts.

He reached a hand forward, toward the shield generator and focused. The outer bulkheads groaned and buckled. Four pressed outward, with another five caving inward, alternating one after another. Small gaps formed in the plating between the bumps and depressions, narrowly exposing the interior.

Luke released his Force grip and dashed toward the power generator. With his lightsaber he sliced into the corner of the squarish structure, loping off a meter long sliver.

Suddenly he pulled his lightsaber free and spun around in guard position. On the far side of the courtyard a lone worker approached, tentatively aiming its small forearm blaster Luke's way.

With an effort, Luke lifted the bug at distance and flung it back over top the nearest building and let it fall out of sight. Whether it survived or not, it was out of weapons range for a few moments…and hopefully that's all Luke would need.

He turned back to the piece of permacrete lying on the ground and lifted the sliver into the air with little more than a glance. His hand reached toward the generator and tore wider one of the gaps he'd already created in the outer plating. He launched the 200 kg sliver through the air with as much speed as he could muster, sliding it neatly between the buckled plates.

It dug in hard, nearly disappearing from view, then it pulled backward into free space again where Luke repeated his telekinetic jab once, twice, three times.

On the fourth he penetrated far enough to hit something critical. He sensed a chain reaction forming within the spire and took off running, lightsaber held at the ready for the group of Insectoids rounding the building ahead of him.

He didn't deviate from his course, even though it brought him within five meters of them. He knocked the half dozen down with a preemptive Force Wave, then tucked his lightsaber behind him in a reverse grip as he sprinted for the cover of the next building.

It was a long, low L-shaped structure which Luke had come across on his way into the generator courtyard. Instead of turning right and running around the building he lept up onto the rooftop and ran across it just as he felt the shield spire going critical.

He dropped off the other side as it blew, but it wasn't as grand of an explosion as he'd anticipated. There was a sharp pop, followed by a long rumble and a staticy electric crackle, but most importantly the invisible shield overhead became translucent and pulled back into itself, starting at the perimeter then completely dissipating once the edge reached center over the now defunk shield spire.

Luke smiled as he continued running along the ground between buildings too tall to scale. He reached down to his wrist and the comm unit built into his light armor. He activated his homing beacon and ran as fast as he dared back the way he had came. As soon as he was clear of the base the fleet would start their orbital bombardment, and the more bugs they could catch under their guns the better for the ground troops which should even now be redeploying into containment protocol around the forest island.

* * *

"My Lord, the shield is down," a Shadow Alliance Commander said quietly to Warlord Etis as he stood on the holo pedestal. Etis turned to the Commander and nodded, then turned back to the personal display that only he could see and politely ended his conversation.

The Warlord backed off the pedestal and turned to the tactical bridge display on the Shadow Alliance Cruiser _Celerity_, his flagship for the Endor operation.

"Order the ground force to begin to pull back to the periphery of the kill zone," he said, his eyes never once leaving the tactical holo. "They are to hold there and signal us once all troops are clear."

Captain Ronson nodded and turned to relay the orders down the chain of command. Etis watched the small blip in the Insectoid base that was General Skywalker's transmitter as it moved with amazing speed toward the southwestern edge of the base.

"Fire control, new target. Two batteries only," he ordered, highlighting a target in the southeastern quadrant of the base, far enough from Skywalker and his troops to risk a few shots. "Fire when ready."

* * *

The diamond-shaped cruiser didn't move from its position in orbit, it had already been holding steady above target, thanks to a continuous stream of corrective thrust that counteracted the planet's gravity in lieu of the repulsorlift coils that the Shadow Alliance ships lacked. The other ships flanking it, however, had little trouble maintaining position.

The seven flanking _Imperial_-class Star Destroyers floated lazily in low orbit, awaiting orders to begin what they did best…orbital bombardment.

Two batteries on the Star Destroyer _Inquisitor_ got the honor of the first pinpoint strike and did right by their selection. The two green turbolaser lances fell within 17 meters of target…straight into an energy shield.

Etis frowned as the computer updated the display with twelve smaller shields spaced haphazardly around the base, protecting small areas but not the whole. A quick glanced at the layout explained why…the shields matched up perfectly with their grounded starships. They were using the ships' shields to cover what part of the base they could now that the primary shields were down.

"Fire control, select targets between those auxiliary shields first, with priority going to the kill zone. Sector 7," he said, highlighting a radial sector totaling 1/8th of the circular base in the southeastern quadrant, "is weapons hot. Mind the boundaries until we get our troops clear."

* * *

The first two turbolaser hits were enough to make Luke jump. He wasn't out of the base yet and they'd already started bombardment?

He glanced down at his comlink and saw that his homing beacon was still active. Never the less he pushed the pace a bit harder as he neared the treeline within the base. He'd have to pass through another few klicks of forest, full of Insectoid defenses no doubt, until he got to the devastated kill zone.

Which meant that he was still ten minutes or more from safety when the fleet opened up en mass on the other side of the base. The rumble of incoming capital ship fire drowned out any and all other sounds, making for a nerve-racking run through the forest even without the waves of burrowed Insectoids surfacing in panic.

Luke cut down a few as he passed, but ignored any of the fleeing bugs that left him alone. He had to get across the kill zone before they did, else the fleet wouldn't be able to target them with him in the area and they'd have to hunt them down on foot within the rest of Endor's massive forest…a task that had proven near impossible on other worlds.

Two more hidden bunkers exploded out of the ground and twin lines of tightly packed workers scurried out and crossed right in front of Luke's path. With the pounding of the orbital guns pumping adrenaline through his veins he lept over both lines simultaneously, nearly hitting his head on a branch, and came down on the other side of them, not missing more than half a step on impact as he sprinted on…all without a sound. His eardrums were quickly becoming numb from the continuous acoustic shockwaves.

Several minutes later he emerged into the devastation of the kill zone and began run/jumping over the still smoking trunks and craters of what used to be forest. Off to his left he could see several Insectoids making their way across as well. Within minutes they'd be in the clear…he only hoped there were enough troops waiting for them on the other side. If he could just get clear they could call down fire on the fleeing bugs.

But he wasn't, and the guns were going to wait.

In front and above him in the sky three objects zoomed past over head. His eyes caught them just before they disappeared over the forest…they were Insectoid fighters, and they'd had a clear strafing run at him. He was lucky they'd missed him amongst the debris…or were too busy to care.

Luke jumped over another fallen, half destroyed stump and landed in mud up to his knee. It caught his momentum, nearly knocking him over and partly wrenching his joint in the process.

"Blast it," he yelled, surprised not to be able to hear his own voice. He yanked on his boot twice, but it didn't want to come easily.

Luke ignited his lightsaber and carved a section of mud out around his foot. The partially liquefied soil quickly filled in the narrow trench, but it was loosened enough that he was able to pull out his boot and the plug of mud around it.

He set his leg anchor down on a charred log nearby and quickly stripped it clean, using both his hands and the Force, before leaping on again, oh so near the perimeter.

* * *

Etis watched intently as his forces pulled back past the kill zone and Skywalker stopped dead in his tracks, some 400 meters from safety. He stared at the glowing blue dot for a long, agonizing minute before it finally started to move again. Two minutes later it passed into the forest and winked out. Skywalker's sign that he was clear.

Etis glanced at his troops' position and gave the situation a satisfied nod. "Fire control…all clear. Fire on all sectors."

* * *

Two hours later, the base lay destroyed and the Insectoids defeated…but the mop-up action would take weeks to complete. In the end, the Shadow Alliance decided to leave a permanent garrison on planet, just in case they hadn't found and killed all the bugs that had escaped from the base…and in case the Insectoids decided to return for a second invasion of the forest moon of Endor.


	69. Chapter 69

After a long, tedious, five week journey to the inner core, the _Evanescence_ arrived at the Shadow Alliance sanctuary zone and the planet code-named Coruscant, where it deposited the 2,500 Jedi younglings at the incomplete training center along with one Siley Utrel.

Her shuttle was 47th in line and deposited her and twenty younglings in a partially functional landing pad complex inside a vast city carved out of the native jungle. A Shadow Alliance officer approached the group, dressed in a simple grey uniform adorned with a single emblem on the left shoulder…that of a lightsaber blade extending upward from a starburst.

She didn't recognize the emblem, but the uniform stood out. The man was probably a ground pounder, based on the cut of the cloth. Skin tight with extra material over the knees and elbows.

He gave the group a quick, all encompassing look then settled his gaze on Siley. "I'll take the younglings from here."

"Ah," she said awkwardly. "I'm one of them, actually."

The handler bowed his head. "My apologies. Older prospects are being sectioned off into another group," he pointed over to a tall spire near the edge of the courtyard. "Over there."

"Thanks," she said hesitantly, glad to be rid of the immature brats but not sure what exactly she was supposed to do next. She walked off in the direction he'd given her, winding her way through the groups being offloaded by the continuous stream of shuttles.

Eventually she spotted a group of adolescents sitting on and against a stack of crates outside the partially complete spire.

"Hi," she said, cautiously walking up to the dozen or so Humans and two Twi'leks. "Is there someone here to report in to?"

"Right here," a young man said, sitting up from one of the crates. "Name's Iyarin Horn. Are you Siley Utrel or Ren Volar?"

"Siley," she answered, sizing up the Jedi. He was probably half a dozen years her junior, but the lightsaber hanging off his belt said volumes as to his skill and maturity…she hoped. At least he hadn't hit on her with the first words out of his mouth like twenty or so of the _Evanescence_'s crewers had.

"I'm Ren," a voice behind her said. She turned around and saw a very petite woman with short, fiery red hair and a purple braid hanging down from behind her right ear.

"No lightsaber?" he asked.

She put her hands on her hips in annoyance. "I'm here to learn, not to kick your ass, Padawan."

"Touche," Horn said, half smiling. "Your file said you backed out of your apprenticeship. May I ask why?"

All eyes turned to the elder teen. "My Master and I had a difference of opinion. I thought I'd give Jyr's training a try before they decided to kick me out of the Order."

"Did you now," Horn said carefully. "Let me guess…too much aggression, not enough serenity?"

"Something like that," she snipped back. "Where's your braid, Padawan?"

"Master Jyr said that since I had the rank of Knight previously, he was going to let me out of regrowing it."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "You spoke to him?"

Horn nodded. "He gave me a few pointers how to deal with the lot of you. Most of your training will be handled by the curriculum, but since its present focus in on the younglings I'm here to fill in what they haven't planned for yet. Master Jyr said it's all a work in progress and he sent me here to keep you all from falling through the cracks."

"Lucky us," Siley said, unconvinced.

Iyarin picked up on her tone. "Most of the training is automated, designed my Master Jyr himself. I'm working through the higher level programs myself in order to pass the revised Knight trials and regain my rank."

Ren smiled wickedly. "How's that going?"

"Not well," Horn admitted. "They really jacked up the standards…for all levels. You're going to have to work your tail off to earn that braid this time around."

"I intend to," Ren said determinately, stroking the half meter long braid.

"Well then," Horn said, standing and rubbing his hands in anticipation. "Let's get you settled in. The transit systems aren't up and running yet, so we're in for a bit of a walk."

"How far away is the training center?" Siley asked as the others stood.

Horn laughed. "Where do you think you are?"

Siley tilted her head to the side with a 'don't give me that tone' kind of look. "Where inside the city is the training center? Or is it somewhere else on the planet?"

"Umm…" Horn said, trying not to laugh again. "This 'city' is the training center."

Siley's eyes widened. "All of it?"

"Yes," Horn confirmed, "but most of it isn't operational yet. The dormitories that we're set up in are fully functional, as are at least one training praxium per tier. Our training will begin in a tier three praxium that we have all to ourselves at the moment."

"Tiers?" one of the others asked.

"Younglings start out with basic, tier one training. They advance through tiers two and three before getting a crack at the Padawan trials. Four and five are for the Padawans. Six and seven are for the Knights. Eight, nine, and ten are for the Masters. Level eleven centers are the highest and area specific."

"Shouldn't some of us be starting on tier one?" Siley asked, concerned.

Horn glanced back at her while they began to walk. "Perhaps, but you all have additional skills that the younglings don't, so Master Jyr decided to push you on ahead of the rest and he assigned me to help you through it."

They cut off of the landing pad and onto a walkway that led beyond the spire and further into the city. "But make no mistake, you're going to be pressed to your limits and beyond. From this point one you need to concern yourselves with two things and only two things: Effort and Obedience. I'll take care of the rest, no matter how badly you fail in the beginning."

Siley swallowed hard, knowing better than the rest what intensity of training they were in store for. Her previous pilot training had also been designed by Lord Jyr, and she knew his methods were both ruthless and incredibly effective. If she could manage to keep her head above water, then the training would take care of the rest.

She glanced around at her cohorts, wondering which of them would wash out after the first two weeks. Half of her pilot class had, only a few of which chose to retry again later.

Siley mentally committed herself to surviving those first few weeks, which she knew from experience would be the hardest to adapt to. Hopefully her brief lessons with Skywalker would give her an advantage over the others…save for Ren.


	70. Chapter 70

Rey-len Tarren stood, feet spread slightly wide, her body squarely in front of a two meter wide circle suspended in mid air via a force field. She raised her right hand crosswise in front of her torso, palm flattened…then chopped her hand down and away from her, unleashing a force blast.

The circle moved backward a centimeter or so, then returned to position.

Rey-len glanced at the scoreboard off to her right. It read 1082.

She flung three more telekinetic blasts, each of which the sphere measured, scoring 980, 1104, and 1052. She nodded satisfactorily after that last and walked away from the station in Jyr's original training center on her way to a similar apparatus across the room.

Her satisfaction wasn't with the scores. The Padawan trials level was a mere 120 on the device. The Knight requirement was a 450, with the ever so difficult Masters level a 1300. She had missed that mark, but achieving it today had never been her intent. She was merely warming up and calibrating her power level for her attempt on the next apparatus in Jyr's training regimen.

She had privately wondered how Jyr, a self-trained Jedi, could have the ability to block or bisect Revan's Force blasts without having someone to practice against. Such skill would take time to develop, and then even more to hone. According to Revan, Jyr had attained such a high level in this ability that he had been unable to touch the Jedi in the sparing match between them on Kashyyyk.

Both Revan and Rey-len had been taken off guard by his skill, which Revan had witnessed first hand and related to her after the fact. Their telekinetic skills had been their means of survival on Nathon…and as a result they had increased dramatically. How someone would block attacks of the magnitude that they were both capable of unleashing had baffled both of them for some time.

That was until Rey-len had discovered this particular piece of training equipment in the facility that Jyr had spent most of his time training in for over a century.

She walked up between two large objects. One was a wall covered with what looked like crash bags. They were partially crushable, with the ability to reform their shape afterward. The other object was a conical, cave-like aperture that appeared to be made of some type of crystal. Rey-len felt slightly odd every time she used the device and this time was no exception. She had previously concluded that the material had been Force-altered either by Jyr or his phantom Master, whom he spoke little of.

She stood in a small circle transcribed on a specific point between the two objects. She faced the 'cave' and squared herself, then slowly brought both hands together at the wrists.

Rey-len pulled the touching wrists back by her right hip, as if she was cradling an invisible ball between her hands. That 'ball' was empty space, but the procedure helped her focus her powers, so the visual window dressing actually served a purpose. Modulating her power similar to the levels she'd just practiced, she thrust her hands forward and launched a Force blast toward the 'cave.'

Rey-len immediately brought her crossed wrists up in front of her chest and braced herself all in one fluid motion. Her Force blast hit the cave crystal, doubling over on itself and then…reflected back at her.

She braced her body against the blast, trying to bisect as much of it as she could. She failed…again.

After a split second the wave overwhelmed her upper body and knocked her backward…where she fell on her ass, staring up at the high ceiling as the rest of her blast impacted the padded wall and ruffled the crash bags.

Rey-len blew out a quick breath, ruffling the neon red bangs draping askew over her eyes. She'd ingested the color-altering pill over three months ago to give her fifteen-centimeter long locks the unnatural, almost luminescent color. With the swipe of a hand she moved them out of the way and glanced at the score board.

Her blast strength registered at 1216. She'd overdone her intended 1050 and suffered the consequences. The highest level that she'd been successful in sustaining had been 989, and she'd hoped to improve on that.

She gritted her teeth in frustration and walked back to the center circle. With a casual wave of her hand she released a 620 and stood her ground with ease, not even physically bracing herself. Gradually she worked her way up to over 800, where she adapted the side-hilt launching method that brought her wrists up as an after affect…putting them quickly in position to block the return blast that came at a predictable .71 seconds later.

Predictable for her anyway. It seemed that no matter how strong or weak a blast she unleashed, the travel time always ended up at .71 seconds. She knew this wasn't the case for others, for she had their stats to study just as they had hers for comparison. They were erratic, ranging from .90 through 1.20 seconds. Rey-len figured that her years of telekinetic battles had honed her reflexes so much that she responded with heightened speed no matter what the occasion.

Other stats appeared on the board, having to do with how much force made it past her to the crash bags and the distribution of the blast. She had succeeded in slightly bisecting it, causing a 2.3% deviation in the blast pattern, throwing it slightly wide before it knocked her off her feet.

Rey-len took this as a good sign, despite her failure. The most she'd ever been able to redirect had been .8%. This was another indication of the increasing progress she had been making in recent months.

Gone were her gray locks, her withered face, and her frail body. Rey-len had regained her vitality, her speed, and her painfully attractive looks…yet she still felt there was more to do before she fully recovered. When she looked at herself in the mirror the image just didn't feel right, as if she had some more corrections to make before her torture on Nathon would be completely washed away.

Her change in hair color had been a way of moving forward. She had never altered her hair color before, let alone in such an outlandish way. To her, it was a sign of her commitment to intensity…in both her rehab and her dedication to the ways of the Jedi, which had been denied to her for millennia.

_Intensity..._she thought to herself, making a snap decision.

On impulse she threw another blast at the apparatus, only this time she didn't hold back. Her emotions spiked accordingly, her sense of time slowed, and she could feel the wave as it bounced off the cave and rippled back toward her.

Invisible as it was to the eyes, she could 'see' it with her senses. Her emotions swelled with determination and defiance. She was not going to be moved, and focused those emotions into her Force block through narrow, efficient channels that pooled into invisible barricades in front of her.

The 3067 blast rammed into her blocks .69 seconds after release, obliterating the 'pools' of energy and plowing into her body.

Rey-len leaned forward without thinking as the wave threw her backward. Her feet slid on the ground…then the wave was past.

She had been moved three meters out of the circle, but she was still on her feet. The ancient Jedi blinked in surprise, then quickly glanced up at the scoreboard.

Rey-len smiled contently as she walked back into the circle. Success wasn't to be squandered.

She set herself for another 800 level blast, fresh with confidence, and once again began to inch her way up through the power levels with her feet remaining squarely where she set them.

After an hour and a half of repetitive attempts, her new high score rose to a 1040.


	71. Chapter 71

Luke stood in the center of his flagship's bridge, arms crossed over his chest as he stared out at the flow of hyperspace that currently engulfed the Shadow Alliance cruiser _Radiance_. He let his consciousness seep out in to the far reaches of the Force, trying to pick up on the distant battles in the ongoing war against the Insectoids…and the greater war to come against the V'tol.

Luke searched in vain for a way to stem the coming tide, but as such with previous attempts, he couldn't foresee anything less than widespread defeat at the hands of one enemy or another. All he could foresee was chaos, death, and darkness covering the galaxy in the years to come, which further dwindled his hopes for the future.

Luke released his hold on the ever changing temporal kaleidoscope and brought his senses back to the present. Jyr had told him, though he hadn't completely believe him at the time, that there was a way to win this war, but that in doing so one must live in the moment in order to see their way through. He had warned Luke that the shroud of the darkside could cloud his vision of the future, and advised him not to rely on it, but instead to focus on the present, on the living force to see his way through the coming battles.

If Jyr was just putting on a brave face for the sake of morale he was doing an admirable job of it. Nothing that Luke had seen or sensed within him had deviated from the stern confidence he'd had when they'd first met. He was still as actively engaged in the fight as ever, and his inexplicable optimism hadn't diminished one iota. That said, he was also candidly blunt, and had explained in detail to Luke how they were going to lose this war.

It hadn't made sense to him initially, but the more time that passed the more Jyr's words seemed to ring true. He had said that their only hope for the future was to begin rebuilding before the inevitable fall came, so that they would have sufficient personnel and resources to form the core of an effective resistance that would one day stand a chance of toppling the enemy…once they had spread themselves thin in their quest for galactic dominance.

The V'tol, however, knew their perils well, and had kept their density of ships strategically high over their few captured worlds. Once their new fleet of star destroyers was completed and fully crewed they could begin conquering systems en mass…or they could continue to cherry pick and overrun select systems by brute force, in numbers that no one could resist.

Either way, Jyr insisted, it was to their advantage. The galaxy was vast, and there was no way the enemy could find them if they wanted to hide badly enough. There were still vast expanses of the galaxy unknown to its local inhabitants, let alone the intergalactic invaders who had even less geographic information than they did. There were many backwater worlds, whether on the rim or in the deep core, that had gone unnoticed for centuries and would continue to go unnoticed for many more.

It was, however, the public and overpopulated worlds that would attract the enemy's attention. They did not have the option of hiding, and at best could hope to inflict some damage upon the enemy forces when they inevitably fell. Nowadays, it paid off to live in small, isolated systems rather than the core worlds with their crush of humanity, ripe for either slavery or the Insectoids' diner menu.

Why then, Luke had asked, where they bothering to fight against the Insectoids, wasting resources and personnel in a pointless war they couldn't win, rather than running and hiding now rather than later?

Jyr had immediately labeled that 'quitter talk' and reminded Luke that the battles in the here and now set the playing field for the greater war yet to come. By defending specific systems now, they could influence and increase their odds for success later, as well as save many lives in the process.

"Your thoughts are clouded, Master," Rata said quietly as she walked up behind him.

Luke smiled, releasing his long range senses and focusing back on the moment…and his new apprentice. "Am I that easy to read?"

"My thoughts mirror yours, which makes them easier to isolate," she confided. "If there is a way to win this war, I cannot see it."

Luke spun around to face the slightly shorter Jedi. "Jyr says there is a way, and I am inclined to agree."

"Do you?" she challenged. "Your feelings say otherwise."

Luke frowned. "You know, I'm used to having a naïve Padawan as an apprentice, not an insightful Knight who can sense my thoughts."

"And I am used to being the teacher, not the student," Rata reflected.

"Then perhaps we should be less cryptic," Luke suggested, "and get straight to the point. I know we should be fighting the Insectoids, I feel it, but I don't understand it. It seems like such a waste," he admitted in a hushed whisper so none of the crew could hear.

"Would not fighting change anything?" Rata asked.

Luke considered that. "More systems would be captured, more people would be dead, but my logic keeps suggesting that we've only delayed the inevitable, and paid a high price to do it."

"From life spawns hope," Rata offered. "No matter how badly things turn, so long as we live there is a chance."

"And here I thought I was the one supposed to be giving the pep talk," Luke joked.

Rata shrugged. "I have a slightly different point of view since I'm not leading the fight as you and Master Jyr are. You have much more to consider than I do. My duty is to fight within the strategy you decide on, and that gives me considerably more freedom to assess the current situation."

"And what is your conclusion?" Luke asked, slightly curious.

"We must fight, not because we think we can win, but because we are Jedi. It is not a true test of character to fight a battle you know you are going to win, but to fight the one that is impossible to win, and in doing so explore the depth of your potential as you are called upon to use it simply to survive."

"You sound as if this war is a rite of passage for you?"

"I suppose so," she said, to Luke's surprise. "I've never felt truly challenged before...I always felt, unfulfilled. Now that's not the case. I have a purpose."

Rata lowered her head, staring at the floor for a moment before continuing.

"As regrettable as it is that this war has occurred, in some ways I welcome it. This is where I belong, not sitting in council chambers or negotiating petty disputes. I'm here to fight the darkness. I'm here to make a difference. I no longer fear dying, as I have in the past, because I know that this is how things are meant to be. This is what it is to be a Jedi, and death cannot take that away. Before now, death would have robbed me of the chance to get to this point, but now that I'm here, I feel much more at peace…not a tranquil peace," she clarified, "but an excited, self-contentment. This is who I am supposed to be, this is where I am supposed to be, and this is what I am supposed to be doing. I've been waiting for this all my life."

Luke blew out a slow breath. "I envy you then. I have trouble shaking the responsibility for the lives that are about to be lost, as if it's my fault for not figuring out a way to save them."

Rata placed a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I imagine that's a side effect of single-handedly resurrecting the Jedi Order. You've always been the one in charge. You've never had the chance to find your own purpose, you've always had everyone else's to worry about."

"I came to the same conclusion two years ago," Luke admitted. "Yet I still have trouble letting go."

"You can't let go of something you never had a grip on," Rata reminded him. "The fate of others never belonged to you. That is why you can't let go. You can't defeat an illusion…you must see through it."

Luke laughed lightly. "Tell me again why you wanted to be my apprentice? It seems you're the one doing the teaching."

Rata slowly shook her head. "I'm merely offering my perspective. The truth of your thoughts is a mystery only you can unlock. As for my wanting to be your apprentice, I wish to work with someone above and beyond my skills, so that I will be challenged to keep up. I have no wish to be slowed down by another wet behind the ears Padawan."

"I felt the same when I started to train with Jyr," Luke said, nodding in agreement. "We hold ourselves back far too much for the sake of the next generation."

"On that note, I hope I do not hold you back much, Master."

Luke smiled. "You've got a long way to go to catch up, my young apprentice, but I feel that you will be more of an asset than a burden."

"I shall endeavor to tip the scales to 'asset' as much and as quickly as I can," Rata said determinately.

"It takes time," Luke cautioned, "but having another more powerful than you to study from makes a blasted lot of difference. Stay close to me and I imagine you will pick up a lot of things that can't be taught."

"As you wish, Master," she said as the _Radiance_ dropped out of hyperspace.

"Captain?" Luke asked.

"Sir, sensors are reporting no ships currently in orbit, however, the Insectoid outpost does have its deflector shields raised. We'll never be able to blast through them from orbit."

"As we expected," Luke said calmly. "Prepare a shuttle and fighter escort. Rata and I will take care of this ourselves. Just make sure to keep any uninvited guests from dropping in on the party."

Luke and Rata exchanged glances before heading for the bridge turbolift in stride.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" the _Radiance_'s Captain asked. "Reports indicate over a thousand Insectoids on the surface."

"Which is rather small by Insectoids' standards," Luke added. "Order the transport ship to stand by to assist with fighter cover once we take down any anti-air turrets they may or may not have, but do not let them land any ground troops until I give the order."

The Captain stood tall and saluted. "Understood, General. Colonel Andar may not like it, but I'll make sure the donut driver keeps his troops tucked in tight until you give the word."

Luke smiled at the Captain's reference and returned his salute before exiting the bridge with his apprentice in tow.


	72. Chapter 72 Rebirth

Jyr stood in the center of the Sarkel Arena on Telos, wearing his usual skintight clothing beneath a traditional Jedi overrobe so dark brown that it appeared black at first glance. The Jedi Knight stood passive in front of the 90,000 seats as the last few were finally filled, not with spectators, as the Arena usually saw, but with planetary Governors from systems across the galaxy. Many more who could not attend in person would be viewing his secure hologram from their home systems, hoping that the Jedi's summons would bring with it the wise counsel that they were reputed for.

From his side, a technician gave him a 'thumbs up', signifying that their holocom link was active. Jyr stood a fraction taller and pressed a tone button on the dais before him, informing the chattering crowd that it was time to begin.

"Many of you," he began, almost monotone, "I have met in person over the past century. For those of you I have not, I am Aer-ki Jyr, Jedi Knight and Supreme Commander of the Shadow Alliance. I am also the default leader in our common war against the Insectoids and the V'tol, and I come to you with ill tidings."

A murmur ran through the assembled crowd, but it quickly hushed as Jyr did not continue to speak over it.

"We estimate that within three months the V'tol will finish construction on a fleet numbering no less than 10,000 Star Destroyers."

Where one would have expected an uproar, there was dead silence within the Arena. These were not commoners, they were planetary leaders and they knew quite well the implications of an enemy fleet of that magnitude.

"Initial readings," Jyr continued, "show no modifications to the standard Star Destroyer design. We know that the V'tol have weapons and armor superior to our own, yet it seems they are either incapable or unwilling to equip these new warships with their own technology. This could mean they don't fully trust the Human crews that will undoubtedly be manning them, given their lack of sufficient extra-galactic personnel to fill them, by our estimates."

"It could also mean that they can't yet replicate their own technology en mass. Their choice of using a ship design native to our galaxy is curious. It suggests that they intend to use the resources within our galaxy to subjugate us. We have already heard their decree that we submit as slaves or face extinction. By all indications they intend not only to use our own people against us, but our own technology as well."

"As dire as this appears, it is also to our advantage," Jyr said, surprisingly. "Shadow Alliance technology is marginally superior to the galactic standard. Our cruisers are an even match for a star destroyer, unlike the V'tol ships. If the enemy chooses to use our own technology against us, so much the better. We know its strengths…and its weaknesses."

"That number of ships, however, cannot be ignored or slighted. If the V'tol have crews ready to deploy when the new fleet is completed, they will be able to overrun any star system they choose with sheer numbers. Neither my forces nor yours can stop them. If they choose to spread out and assault multiple systems simultaneously, then we stand a chance to hold onto key systems, but we will not be able to mount a proper defense of them all…and the V'tol will still gain more worlds to turn to their purposes."

"Regardless of their choice of strategy, some of your worlds will soon fall into their hands. We cannot prevent this, nor do we know which worlds will be targeted. The coming years will prove to be a very dark time for the galaxy. What we must focus on is survival, not victory. To that end, we need to make use of that which we still possess and the time that we still have before the onslaught begins."

"I have summoned you here to announce the end of the Shadow Alliance. As of this moment, I am re-establishing the Galactic Republic…under the following format," Jyr said, pressing a transmit button on the dais. Every Governor in the Arena, and those abroad, was sent a copy of the revised Articles of Allegiance via the personal datapads that had been distributed to them upon entry.

"The Republic will function as follows," Jyr announced as they began to read through the short, but pertinent text. "Each division of the Republic will operate independently of the others. As of now, there is only one active division…the military. All decisions regarding the military will be the prevue of the Shadow Alliance Warlords, which are henceforth the Republic Warlords."

"The second division of the Republic, which shall be constructed within the following month, will be the Economic division. The Republic Credit will be reestablished as the galactic currency, and standardized rates will be set to regulate commerce between Republic members."

"Other divisions will be added over time, as the Republic grows, but the immediate concern is that we band together as one to fight our common enemy. This has happened in part since the outbreak of the war, yet the ensuing chaos of the aftermath of the V'tol invasion has demonstrated just how unorganized we are. That must change if we are to have any hope for survival."

"Now, I can sense that many of you have concerns about a single, centralized galactic government. Let me lay those concerns to rest. Membership in the Republic will be a choice of each and every system. Those Shadow Alliance members that do not wish to become part of the Republic will still be protected under the terms set forth in the terms of Shadow Alliance membership. No one will be forced or coerced to join…and no system will be forced to stay if they choose to join and then one day leave. Strength comes from unity, not coercion."

"As some of you have undoubtedly noticed by now, the structure of the galactic Senate has changed. It is no longer a legislative body. It is a common embassy for all member systems to make known concerns, emergencies, and propositions that would normally go unnoticed. Each division of the Republic will make its own rules and policy. The Senate will have no legal power, only the ability to insure that all members of the Republic are kept informed of the status of Republic affairs and to give your systems the ability to solicit assistance, business, and cooperation from other members directly, bypassing the Republic bureaucracy."

"Some of you are also wondering if I am giving too much power to too few individuals. I can vouch for the integrity of the Republic Warlords…I chose them personally. Same goes for many of the Republic's initial leaders. But still, what will happen over time when corrupt individuals manage to worm their way into the system. What is to stop them from reaching the highest levels of government and perverting the Republic into an instrument of oppression? The answer to that question is simple, and is the very basis for the structure of the Republic."

"The Jedi will ensure that the Republic does not succumb to corruption. Each division of the Republic will govern itself, but if there is ever a problem or a conflict within a division, between divisions, or between a division and a member state, the Jedi will step in and deal with the problem. Once it is settled, the Jedi will allow the Republic to function on its own. In this way the Jedi will watch over and guard the Republic, but they will not actively lead the Republic. The Jedi will troubleshoot when necessary…that is their function within the Republic. It is in them that we place our collective trust, for if the Jedi cannot be trusted, no one can. It is this basic principle that the Republic will be based upon, and all policy will be formed as a derivative of it."

"I, however, am in a unique position. I am both Jedi and the Supreme Warlord of the Republic. I stand with a foot on either side. This de facto leadership is not a Jedi position or a position that anyone else can attain. It is simply a result of my creation of the Shadow Alliance and its transformation into the Republic. Some of you may look upon this with concern, but those of you who have dealt with me as the leader of the Shadow Alliance know from experience that I am not a threat to your sovereignty. The rest of you will come to know this over time. For the moment, I simply ask you to trust me."

"For those of you who do not trust easily consider this. I am a Jedi, over a century old, and the one and only reason why you have not been overrun by the Insectoids. I foresaw this invasion coming and created the Shadow Alliance to counter the threat. Without me and the organization I founded, many of you would already be dead."

"If you still cannot find it within yourself to accept me as trustworthy, then retain your independence and fortify yourself against the coming offensive. The Republic will not abandon you to your doom because you chose not to join. I will not abandon you. The Jedi will not abandon you. That goes for every system, planet, and individual within this galaxy. We fight to save you all, and will sacrifice none."

"We cannot save everyone, however. This I know well. But both I and the Republic will fight to save as many as we can. In order to do so we must act swiftly and wisely. We cannot afford to waste time, resources, or personnel in a time when all three are diminishing rapidly. Return to your worlds. Consider the proposal before you as quickly as reason allows. If your system decides to join the Republic, communicate with us as quickly as possible so that we may begin to coordinate our collective resources before the V'tol launch their second assault."

"To those of you wondering what is the point of doing anything against an enemy as formidable as the V'tol, coupled with the continuing threat of the Insectoids, I will tell you this. The reformation of the Republic doesn't insure us victory…it doesn't insure us survival…it doesn't insure us anything. What it does is give us a legitimate fighting chance...and right now we need to do everything we can to maximize our chances."

"Make no mistake, we are in serious trouble…but we are not going to lay down and die, we are not going to surrender to despair. We are going to fight what may seem an impossible war, and in the process buy time to learn how to hold the line against the enemy. If we are able to do that, then we stand a chance of one day growing wise enough and strong enough to push the enemy back and attempt to reclaim our lost worlds."

"Do not lose hope. All is not lost…not yet."


	73. Chapter 73

The Galactic Republic fleet emerged from hyperspace in extreme high orbit over Mon Calamari some 500 ships strong. The core group consisted of five Super-Star Destroyers, twelve Brekk battleships, and fifty two droid carriers from the FTA. Around them former Shadow Alliance task forces formed up into what looked like schools of fish, arranged in very precise, ever moving positions. It took several minutes for all elements of the massive fleet to exit hyperspace and form up on the _Evanescence_, which held point position in the middle of the claw-like super-formation, but due to their high entry point the V'tol couldn't exploit their momentary disorganization.

As it was, the Republic fleet was well situated when the V'tol amassed their patrolling fleets and drove hard for the invading ships…which were oddly content to hold position and wait for the planetary defenders to come to them.

Republic Supreme Warlord Jyr held personal command on the _Solstice_, a Republic cruiser riding high above the much larger _Evanescence_. Both ships were towards the front of the formation, but Jyr's command ship was situated at a point where it would not come under direct fire and would allow him both the ability to flank the incoming V'tol formation as well as direct the battle from above.

Not that there was to be much of a battle today…though that's how they had to make it look. Unknown to the V'tol, at this very moment, on the other side of Mon Calamari, a cloaked extraction vessel was entering the planet's atmosphere and driving hard toward the ocean below. It had been modified for underwater travel and would be both large enough and fast enough to get to the Jedi temple within minutes, evacuate the younglings and most of the other Jedi, offload a handful of delicate supplies, and rise back to the surface and make for orbit before the V'tol were any the wiser.

A few minutes after the extraction vessel entered the atmosphere a small flotilla of cloaked craft launched dozens of drop pods into the atmosphere containing bulk supplies that would be picked up by underwater craft at several predetermined drop points. The Republic intended to extricate the Jedi and reinforce the subsurface warfront at the same time.

Jyr watched the range numbers on the approaching fleet and caught the attention of his primary fleet control operator.

"Now, Admiral," he said calmly.

* * *

All throughout the Republic fleet every cruiser, destroyer, and frigate that had once been part of the Shadow Alliance opened up their modular pods and launched their missiles at the incoming, shieldless V'tol warships. The sheer number of missiles launched was unfathomable to anything short of a combat computer and was made even more awe inspiring due to the fact that the ships were emptying their racks on the first salvo.

Mere seconds after the missiles took flight the FTA droid carriers launched their full compliment of droid fighters…which followed the missiles toward the approaching ships.

Jyr watched his battle plan unfold in good order, with his smaller vessels falling to the rear of the formation and his cruisers reforming into knife-like clusters that would soon be charging into the damaged V'tol lines. Off to the side he kept track of the _Shooting Star_'s progress as it descended through the depths of the ocean on the far side of the planet.

_Timing_ was the key to this battle. Jyr had known that would be the case from the very beginning of the planning for this operation. The fleet he had amassed for this single mission stood a 50/50 chance of being able to defeat the V'tol fleet, but they would suffer atrocious losses in the process…something he wasn't willing to accept. Also, the V'tol had one of their spherical ship/bases in orbit, and Jyr didn't even know what kind of firepower it would require to take the small 'moon' out.

Knowing that, the purpose of the mission was to convince the V'tol that they meant to retake the water world, further duping the extra-galactic invaders into leaving their back door open to the rescue ship, but at the same time also inviting them to rush into their trap.

That trap had been the massive missile barrage…something Jyr's ships didn't usually carry, and it had taken nearly every modular missile pod in their possession across the galaxy to outfit them all, as well as devoting a good chunk of their missile surplus to fill the ships to capacity.

Jyr knew that the key to defeating the V'tol fleet was to rack up damage to their impressive hull armor, for while it was superior to the shields and armor that his own ships possessed, the enemy's protective covering did have one glaring disadvantage…it couldn't regenerate as shields could once they took hits.

The missile barrage was designed to inflict those hits en mass, damaging the armor now in order that they might exploit that damage in future battles…and they had to take advantage of the opportunity now, before the V'tol added legions of Star Destroyers to their already intimidating fleet.

The missiles accomplished their mission spectacularly, destroying a handful of vessels and damaging all of the rest to varying degrees. Mere seconds after the explosions dissipated, revealing mostly intact ships that attested to how tough and durable the V'tol hull armor truly was, the droid fighters fell on the capitol ships, specifically targeting the damaged areas in one massive strike before fleeing out the back of the V'tol formation.

Next came the knife-like formations of the Republic cruisers. Their oversized engines allowed them the versatility to maneuver through the V'tol lines adequately, both taking and giving damage as they went…but they too only made one massive pass through the enemy lines before angling away and driving hard to escape the planet's gravity well.

While all the rest of this was happening, the Super-Star Destoyers and Brekk battleships didn't fire a single shot. They had been present only for the sake of the diversion, and turned about immediately after the cruisers broke the V'tol lines.

The droid carriers came with them, only on a slightly different trajectory…just enough to meet up with the surviving fighters and take them back onboard while the slower V'tol fighters lagged far behind, unsure of which group of ships to pursue.

Forty minutes after the first shots were fired the last of the assault force lept back into the safety of hyperspace. They hadn't lost a single capital ship, and only suffered 30% losses to their unmanned fighters. The damage amassed by the cruisers was mostly absorbed through shield loss, and what little did get past their protective energy fields was stopped cold by the lesser armor they carried.

All in all, they had racked up significant hull damage to the V'tol fleet…damage that would take a long time to repair, if they attempted to do so at all. In the past, it was observed that non-penetrating damage to the V'tol's heavy armor was not attended to…only the damage that managed to make it all the way through the armor was patched, and that patchwork was considerably weaker than the armor itself.

The _Solstice_ waited in high orbit until it was the last friendly ship left in the system. Jyr had remained behind until the _Shooting Star_ had made its clandestine jump to hyperspace before he allowed his ship's captain to do likewise.

As the viewscreens shifted to the blue/white currents of hyperspace Jyr sank back into his command chair, soaking in the coup they had just wrought. The V'tol wouldn't be caught off guard like that again. They'd learn from the tactics he'd used and be prepared for them the next time around…but there wasn't going to be a next time, even if Jyr had wanted one.

The number of missiles expended had been significant. They'd devoted nearly 70% of their stockpiles to this single mission…and it'd proven worth it…but those stockpiles would take a long time to restore, if they could be restored at all. The war against the Insectoids was ongoing and it looked as if the V'tol invasion was about to relaunch. It was probable that they would use as many missiles in coming years as they were able to produce…which meant that the stockpile that he'd worked long and hard to established would probably remain in its reduced capacity.

So be it then. That's what they existed for. Besides, he knew that missiles alone wouldn't be enough to save them.

Jyr sat up straight and took at look at the battle statistics as a summary appeared on his control console. He ignored it and brought up the raw data…specifically that of the damage inflicted on the V'tol and how much, if any, their weapon modifications had affected the V'tol armor.

He spent the first two legs of their hyperspace journey going over the numbers, not at all pleased with what he found. The new modifications had proven ineffective. The durability of the enemy's armor hadn't been diminished in the least. His engineers would have to go back to the drawing board again.

He really wished they'd been able to salvage the V'tol transport that Revan and Tarren had brought to Kashyyyk…then at least they'd have something to experiment on.

For now, at least, they'd have to make due with the weapon settings they had. The Star Destroyers, at least, they knew how to kill. Jyr seriously hoped that the V'tol hadn't managed to upgrade their armor and had chosen to stick with standard designs, as all available intelligence data suggested.

If they'd managed to equip them with the same armor their extra-galactic ships carried in addition to the Star Destroyer's shields…


	74. Chapter 74

Rey-len Tarren dropped to a knee in the middle of the corridor on her way to the obstacle courses. She'd grabbed a quick shower after three hours of sparring practice against the training droids that had left her minimal clothing drenched in sweat and though she wasn't overly exhausted, she suddenly found herself unable to stand.

The former Exile's limbs lost their stability, burning with immense fatigue and a plethora of other sensations that she couldn't identify…but they _were_ familiar. Three times before she'd experienced this same sensation, the last being two months ago. Each time it had gotten exponentially worse…and this case was no exception.

Rey-len's knee buckled and she collapsed in a heap on the floor, struggling just to breathe. Her mind flashed with memory and sensation from years past, with multiple images per second moving so fast she couldn't isolate them. Her years of torment surged forth, emotions long forgotten reawakened, and fresh tears rolled from her clenched eyes.

Her body trembled uncontrollably, but inside she felt inexplicable movement.

She was hyperprocessing, both physically and mentally as she had before, but this was so intense that it scared her, however, there was little she could do about it.

The first time it'd happened, she'd tried to fight it, to no avail. The second time she tried to outlast it…with success. The third time she'd learned to let it happen and go with the flow of her thoughts. After each incident her midichlorian level had made a sudden and significant jump, so even as she lay quivering on the floor she took this to be a very good sign of her progress…but the potency of this latest bout was scaring the sithspit out of her.

She struggled just to breathe, the oppression of the past seemed to be weighing down on her, as if she'd been numb to it all this time and now it was finally hitting her. Her structured mind lost its coherency and her protective walls broke down. She felt everything…the pain was unbearable, as it had been before, but back then she couldn't do anything about it.

Now was different.

As if in response to all that had lay inside her unresolved, her body jerked violently, bleeding off an invisible toxin in long overdue defiance of an enemy that had been previously inescapable. Involuntarily she rolled over onto her stomach with a jerk, then careened backwards into the far wall. She couldn't control her actions and resisted the urge to try. This needed to happen, she could sense it beneath the torrent that was blowing through her mind…like the shard of a broken vibroblade being pulled out of a wound.

The darkside of the Force swelled around the corridor like a hurricane, not only in her memories but in the present. It assaulted her over and over again, just as it had in times past. Her connection to the lightside was obscured…and she threw up into the lush carpet beneath her. She felt like the essence of her being was being stripped away, as it had on Nathon. She had fought it then, futilely.

Over time she'd somehow learned to exist, to persist, to live without being alive. When she'd escaped with Revan that persistent darkside presence had disappeared along with that nightmarish environment…but 4,000 years of torturous damage couldn't be wished away, and in some sort of panicky survival reflex her subconscious was trying to purge the toxins all at once, as she had _wished_ to do for years on end, but couldn't because of the oppressive shroud of the darkside.

Once she had gotten free of that shroud she had started to heal and detox…but she'd plateaued shortly thereafter, mistakenly believing that she'd completely healed up within a few weeks. She'd known better, at least subconsciously, but Rey-len couldn't understand why her healing process had stopped. The only logic reason available to her at the time was that her regenerative process had reached completion.

In retrospect she'd discovered it was due to another survival reflex. When the damage couldn't be dealt with, the subconscious would numb the effect, locking down the damage so that some measure of functionality was possible. In that first bout of instability her numbness had evaporated and the damage was unlocked for her to finally confront, process, and heal.

When the second bout had hit her, she realized that only a level of numbness had been previously released, and that another had existed below it. She'd wondered how many levels she'd have to progress through before she'd be fully healed, and had awaited the eventual third bout with anticipation.

This time, however, all her remaining numbness levels had come undone _simultaneously_. Rey-len knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. She could feel everything in crystal clarity like she had in her first year on Nathon.

But the fear that swirled amidst the darkside storm persisted from the fact that this was too much, too fast. She couldn't control when she unnumbed, or how much, and it seemed that her subconscious had chosen to go all in this time.

Whether she would survive that sudden of a detox was the question.

Right now, however, none of that mattered. The darkside was at her throat again, just as it had before…only this time if she was able to purge its latent influence over her it would be gone for good. The oppressive environment of Nathon wasn't there to resuppress her, as it had been before giving her no chance of victory.

Rey-len managed to isolate a tiny piece of her mind against the torrent, and in that minuscule grain of consciousness she could feel the spark of the lightside once again.

That tiny spark made all the difference. It provided a contrast to the darkness, and allowed her mind to focus…

She suddenly realized she was in agreement with her subconscious. Fight this now and end it, once and for all. Four millennia of sickened existence was enough…there would be no more.

Her conscious mind aligned with her subconscious and in unison the Jedi began to fight outward from her tiny oasis of light.

It was an old battle, one whose challenges she was well experienced with. She knew what to do, for she'd been wishing for this day her entire life. Now that it was upon her, the only question mark was the sheer magnitude of what she had to counter.

Pulling on the power of the lightside to fight her internal war, her body spasmed back and forth across the corridor. Rey-len bashed her elbow into the wall, dislocated an ankle and shoulder, and bled profusely from a broken nose…but she wasn't conscious of it. Her battle was being fought inside her mind and body, and she was winning.

* * *

Ios Yelar was the first Jedi to find Rey-len, her body lying prone in the hallway. Blood was everywhere, including a significant pool alongside her head. Her bare arms and legs showed a multitude of cuts and newly formed bruises, and several joints looked to be out of place.

"What the blazes…" he said, kneeling next to her.

"Come on, Red," Ios said earnestly, touching his fingertips to her forehead. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized she was still alive. He pulled back his hand and studied her closely. No telltale weapon marks, the bruises didn't exhibit any pattern consistent with hand or foot blows, and the pool of blood appeared to be emanating from her nose.

Oblivious to Ios amidst the gore, Rey-len lay crumpled with a serene expression on her face. Her lips had even tightened in the barest wisp of a smile, and the sweat-induced sheen covering her skin shone with reflective highlights from the corridor's dim, blue lights.

The Knight didn't notice these subtle signs...to him it looked like the first of the new Jedi Masters had been assaulted. Checking her vitals once again to make certain she didn't have any injuries that he could aggravate, Ios slid his arms under her lithe frame and lifted her out of the pool of her own blood and hurriedly walked her to Jyr's medical bay.

En route he attracted the attention of other Jedi via the Force and crossing their paths. Kalamet, the Camasi monk with the most extensive medical training, was waiting for Ios when he brought Tarren in and immediately began to analyze her injuries with the assistance of two medical droids. They quickly diagnosed the damage she'd sustained, but were unable to conclude how it had happened.

Kalamet went about resetting her dislocated joints and pulled off her bloody clothing in preparation for a dunk in the bacta tank. With the help of one of the droids, they realigned her broken nose before attaching the breath mask and slipping her into the healing fluid.

Her body bobbed slightly as her momentum settled within the vertical tank, then her form crystallized into a haphazard position that she would retain for hours now that her spasms had passed.

Ios and the other Jedi studied her injuries and concluded that she must have been assaulted. Without her conscious to answer questions, they decided to search the facility for an intruder and coordinated with the other Jedi spread across the training center to establish a wide and efficient detection net, sharing snippets of each other's perceptions as they methodically searched through every section of the facility.

In the end they found nothing, but they weren't satisfied until Rey-Len regained consciousness some five hours later and explained in a few vague words what she thought had happened.

As she did so, a pair of maintenance droids were cleaning up the blood in the hallway…and the spattering of drops that stretched all the way to the med bay.

A single drop, just inside the doorway and behind the analysis equipment alongside the bacta tanks, thrown there as Ios had swung Rey-len around to lay her on the analysis table, has escaped notice from the cleaning droids. It remained hidden in the dim crack between medical equipment, suspended in a half sphere of dark red liquid clinging to the tile floor.

Within, that small bead bore witness to the trials and tribulations that Rey-len had suffered, survived, and eventually overcome in her 4,000 years of captivity…

…a midichlorian count of 72,000.


	75. Chapter 75

"Ah…" Siley uttered in genuine pain as she laid down on her bunk. As soon as her head hit the pillow her body refused to move so much as a millimeter, but her legs wouldn't stop burning. She knew this was both a good and bad thing, good because it meant she was pressing her limits, but bad because she was overloading herself, and she knew from experience that could only go on for so long before she crashed.

It'd been six weeks since she'd arrived at the Jedi training center…and six weeks of hellish training that felt like more than a year. Her mind was so clouded with fatigue she had trouble remembering yesterday, or even earlier that morning. It was midday now, and all her mind wanted to do was disfocus and try to bleed off the stress that was saturating her senses.

She'd originally thought that her pilot training would have prepared herself for Jyr's Jedi training…but she'd been horribly wrong. His methods had always been hard, but for the Jedi what he wanted was impossible. Already 13 of the 18 members of her conversion training group had quit, unable or unwilling to keep up with the insane demands. How the younglings put up with this she didn't know…she was a full grown, battle-experienced adult and she was near to the breaking point after only a few _weeks_!

Her two hour nap vanished in a flash, and suddenly Horn was standing over her, tapping her forehead gently to wake her up.

"Come on, Beautiful. Time for more pain," he said straight faced. He knew how much this was hurting her and the others.

She was about to refuse, her fatigue consuming most of her thoughts…but the wisecrack about her beauty lit a fire in her that cleared off her mental haze. Siley glared up at him and pushed away his hand.

Horn nodded, content, and walked off, leaving her to get herself the rest of the way up and active.

"I hate that prick," she said to herself as she lifted her aching body up off the soft cushions of the bunk. Her bare feet hit the floor next to her shoes and jacket where she'd unceremoniously left them…but her socks were missing.

Not bothering to spend the time looking for them, she pulled out a fresh pair from a nearby dresser and pulled back on her gear before stumbling out of her quarters. Horn and three others were waiting in the lounge that they all shared but rarely used. Time not spent on training or eating was usually consumed by soaking up as much sleep as they could get. A moment later Ora dragged herself out of her quarters on the opposite side, her head tails twitching with agitation.

As soon as she was two steps out of her door Horn walked off and the trainees grudgingly followed.

Siley was only half awake by the time they entered the tier 3 training center, her body pleading with her to return to her inviting bunk…or even to just lay down on the walkway and curl up in a ball. Continuing with training scared her…so she pushed aside all thoughts of what was to come and focused on the moment, as Skywalker had told her to do a long, long time ago.

"Up you go," Horn told them as they walked into a new training chamber.

Siley arched her neck upwards in horror. At the top of a large building was an endpoint hologram.

"Please tell me there are safeties?" Ora asked. Even her voice was tired.

"Oh sure," Horn said unsympathetically. "Feel free to fall as many times as you like, but you don't get to quit until you make it to the top. No matter how long it takes."

"Timed?" Lersa asked.

Horn nodded. "Lists are posted at the start."

The dark haired Human plodded off, lazily waving at the others to follow. "Time for more fun."

As was his custom, Horn jogged on ahead of them and tagged the start pillar, hitting the climbing course before them, both as an example of how to do it as well as to remind them how inferior they were. He settled at the base of the wall and force jumped a fifth of the way up, clinging to small handholds on the otherwise sheer surface. With apparent ease he crawled up the side of the building.

The trainees watched him until he reached the top, where he waved back down at them sarcastically.

Siley palmed one of four start pedestals and walked up to the wall, carefully grasping the nearest ledge with her fingers and lifting herself up half a meter to a foothold. Beside her three of the others began their ascent, while Ren waited for an alleyway to clear.

Siley's arms started shaking almost immediately, and she had to hold her body close to the wall to keep from shaking away her grip. Tentatively she reached up for the next handhold, but once her fingers latched onto the tiny ledge she froze, her fatigue not allowing her the power to pull herself up. Beside her she heard a faint scream as one of the others fell, but she didn't look. She couldn't risk the movement.

"My turn," Ren said determinately, palming the start pedestal and attacking the wall with aggressive, but steady reaches. Within seconds she was even with Siley and glanced over at her.

"If you're going to rest, do it on the ground," she advised, still moving upwards. "You're wasting energy."

The former Padawan's words seemed to cut through her haze and suddenly Siley's arm responded, painfully pulling herself up to the next hold. Not wanting to have to reclimb the short distance she'd already covered, she willed herself through the next step…then the next, and the next.

_Live in the moment_, she reminded herself.

Most of her didn't care at this point, but the small portion that did pushed on for no apparent reason. The pain wouldn't end at the top. Horn would have another challenge for them, and another, and another…it was never ending. Siley didn't even know why she was trying at this point. All thoughts of becoming a Jedi no longer served as incentive. Those mental tricks had long since worn off, as had every other bit of self-motivation that she'd summoned to keep her going over the past weeks.

So why was she going on? She didn't know, nor did she bother to ask the question. Siley knew she had to, and that was where what little remained of her conscious mind was entrenched. Half the time she didn't even feel connected to her own body…the pain and stress were so much that she'd numbed up to the point where she felt like a mere observer. That felt strange to her, but at the same time it also seemed easy, as if she wasn't the one doing these things. It was almost as if she were looking out of someone else's eyes and…

A cramp in her right leg broke through the numbness and cleared her mind with a jolt of intense pain. Siley had to fight for her grip while her leg hung free in spasm. There was nothing she could do but to wait it out…movement only made it worse.

A coppery taste manifested itself as she stared at her shaking arms. She suddenly realized that in her haste she'd bit her tongue, which was now bleeding without any apparent pain…at least not that she could sense over the screaming from her leg.

She held on through it all though, and after a minute the cramp had dissipated. Careful not to reengage it, Siley gently put her foot down on the hold it had slipped off of and applied her weight evenly.

Nothing happened.

Like all cramps, it was always unpredictable. This one, it seemed, had come and gone.

As she reached up to the next hold her tongue pressed against the inside of her teeth…and that pain finally registered itself.

Siley mentally laughed at herself. _I am so busted up._

From up above, she heard Ren's finish tone as the red-haired woman palmed the pedestal and stopped her ascent timer.

Siley grimaced. Not that she cared right now, but she didn't like getting beat…again.

She reached higher and pulled her torso up and over a smooth ridge that ran the length of the building. It was useless as a handhold, but it forced her body away from the wall a few centimeters, but it felt like a kilometer. She was sure she was going to lose her grip and fall, feeling a sense of vertigo already, but the 'bump' came and went just as the cramp had and she climbed on.

She didn't know how long it had been when her fingers finally slipped over the roof edge, nor did she worry about it. Falling now would have been unbearable, so she redoubled what was left of her nerve and focused on hauling herself up and over the edge as Horn stood nearby, watching but not assisting.

Siley crawled like a worm up onto the roof and lay on the ground, heaving from both the ache in her chest and fatigue.

"Ha hum," Horn said, making the crude vocal cue to get her attention.

She barely cared at this point, but looked up at him anyway, then the pedestal. Almost as an afterthought she dragged her body across the rooftop a meter, then reached up and palmed the finish button.

"Satisfied?" she spit out, resting on an elbow as she looked up at him.

Horn stared down at her. "You know, I think you're hotter covered in sweat."

Siley's eyes narrowed angrily and she pushed herself to her feet, wobbling a bit as she got her balance and stepped further away from the edge. "If I wasn't so tired I'd hit you."

"Promises, promises," he answered with a subdued smile. "At least you weren't last this time."

Siley frowned and glanced behind her. How in the galaxy had she not been last? It'd taken her forever to climb up.

Just now emerging at the top was the Twi'lek. Her smooth green head was glistening with sweat, but her tiny, shaking arms reached out and dragged her exhausted body up and over the edge, where she too collapsed in a heap after tagging the finish button. She looked to Siley as broken down as she felt.

"Alright, over to the next rooftop," Horn announced, pointing to a distant platform.

"You've got to be kidding?" Lersa asked.

Siley knew he wasn't.

"Jump across," Horn insisted.

"After you," Ren insisted, visually measuring the gap.

"Not this time. I go last," he said, walking up to the edge.

"I don't think I can make that," Ren said, concerned. "I have a feeling that not even you can."

"Jedi lead the way," Horn explained. "Rarely do we get the luxury of learning from others. This challenge you have to find your own way through. Jump to the far ledge."

"And if we can't?" Ren challenged.

"Then you're out of the group."

All five of the trainees looked over at Horn.

"What?" Ora asked, aghast.

"It's simple," Horn reiterated. "Jump to the far ledge. If you make it, you continue training with me. If you miss, you're out. Oh, and you only get one shot. Make it count."

"Can we take a breather at least?" Kera asked.

"Half an hour…which gives Ren another 6 minutes to get across."

"We can't make that," she complained. "Even Skywalker would have trouble with that."

"No, he wouldn't," Horn corrected her. "If you don't jump before your time elapses you're out anyway. So gather your energy and go for it…otherwise head on back to your quarters and pack your things."

Siley watched the argument in dread. There was no way she could jump the gap, even if she'd been fully recovered. And if Ren didn't think she would even have a shot at it, then Siley didn't stand a chance. Horn must have known that before he brought them in here, so what was the point?

She sat down in a cross legged position and began to silently cry. She'd come so far, but now it didn't matter. There was no way she could make it any further. It was impossible and she knew it.

"Fine…you want me to jump?" Ren said angrily, walking up to the edge. "I'll jump."

She took three steps back from the edge, steadied herself, then ran forward and Force jumped away from the building, arching high in the air and willing herself across the chasm. She seemed to hang in the air for an unnaturally long time from Siley's perspective, then dropped onto the far rooftop, falling to the ground on impact and rolling out of it.

"That's impossible," Lersa said in a whisper.

"Do not underestimate the Force," Horn reminded them.

They waited through a ten minute respite until Kera's turn came up. She mirrored Ren, taking three steps back then running forward, but at the edge her nerves got the better of her and she hesitated, stumbled, and fell off the edge with only the barest of jumps. She dropped down into the chasm where she was caught by a forcefield and spirited off to the terminus of the safety net.

"Damn," Siley said quietly.

"Hesitation kills Jedi," Horn said, irritated. "Act or do not act. No halfway measures."

Next came Lersa, but before he leapt off the edge he stood rigid and shook his head. "No. This is too much. This isn't a fair test. If Kera is washing out, I'm going with her."

Horn didn't say anything to that. He merely waited through the trainees' rest period until it expired, then waved him off, pointing back to the entrance.

Lersa grunted and jumped down the climbing wall, letting the forcefield catch and deposit him on the ground next to the start pillars. He proceeded to walk out of the chamber in protest.

Siley was next, and just a few minutes away. She knew she wasn't strong enough to make it across…not a chance. But she wasn't a quitter either, and if she was going to wash out, it wasn't going to be by choice like Lersa.

With only a minute remaining Siley pulled herself to her feet and walked forward, taking several lunges to try and loosen up her tired and cramping legs, anxiety swelling in her. All of Jyr's training gave a person unending tries to pass…this didn't feel right. What if she missed? What if she hesitated or slipped or just wasn't strong enough?

Lersa was right, it wasn't fair…

But then again she knew Jyr's pilot training. As hard as it had been, it was always _fair_.

_Something else is going on here_, she thought to herself as the clock ticked down, visible as a small hologram near the edge.

Whatever it was, she wasn't going to have time to figure it out. It was now or never.

_Give it everything you've got…_ she told herself, steeling her nerve in the face of inevitable failure. She backed up all the way to the climbing wall edge, took in a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, then took off running. Drawing on the Force she amassed a decent sprint even on her dead legs then stepped just shy of the edge and jumped…

She rose up in an arc three meters…then felt as if gravity disappeared.

Before her mind caught on to what was happening gravity gripped her again and she dropped down on the far platform in a heap, knocking her knees together painfully in the process.

Ren walked over and knelt beside her.

"It's an artificial gravity field," she snarled. "It pulled us all the way over here. All we had to do was hop up into it. That bastard set us up."

Siley didn't say anything, she was too stunned at having made it. She just shook her head quizzically.

"Could you hear me?" she asked Siley.

"No…"

"They must have damn sound suppressors on," Ren said, pulling Siley to her feet. "I tried to tell you guys."

Suddenly Siley burst out laughing.

"What's wrong with you?" Ren asked, glaring at her ill-timed hilarity.

"Something Skywalker told me…I finally get it."

"What did he tell you?"

"Do or do not, there is no try."

"We've all heard that…"

"He said sometimes people use it as an excuse for not trying if they don't think they can succeed."

Across the gap they saw Ora stand up and walk off the far side, quitting the trial as Lersa had. Horn lazily jumped up into the 'conveyor' and floated across to the two remaining candidates, dropping down lithely next to them.

"What the hell was that all about?" Ren demanded.

Horn held up his hands, almost as if in apology. "Their training isn't over…they'll be moved into another group. A slower group, where they can develop a decent skill base similar to the younglings, if they're willing to take the time. I have a feeling Lersa may quit for good, but that's his call. I am genuinely pleased with you two, however. One difference between a Jedi and a force-user is that a Jedi doesn't quit, even in the face of the impossible. If we're going to fail, then we're going to fail trying."

"Why didn't Ora try?" Siley asked.

"She wanted to, but couldn't find the strength to make an attempt."

"Sometimes all that is required is the will to jump," Ren added, suddenly in agreement.

"Exactly. It doesn't sound like much in retrospect, but when you face the moment of stress you have a choice to make how you will face the challenge, regardless of the outcome. You two rose to the challenge…one quit," he said, referring to Lersa, "one hesitated, and one didn't have the will. They may still become Jedi someday, if they learn from their mistakes, but they're unsuited to continue our training."

"Does everyone have it as hard as we do?" Siley asked, taking note of his 'slower' comment.

Horn laughed. "No. You have to make up for missed opportunities in a short amount of time, unless you want to spend years learning the basics, which you're welcome to do, but Jyr thought you'd be up to the challenge of a quicker path."

"Wait a second…you're hammering us so we can catch up with the others?" Ren asked.

"Not so much in your case," he pointed out, "but for Siley, yes. This is an advanced training group, and as such we're bypassing much of the curriculum standards. If you can survive it, you'll be stronger than the others in the long run."

"If we can survive it," Siley echoed.

"Do or do not," Horn reminded her.

"What's next?" Ren asked.

Horn smiled. "Back to the wall."

Siley wanted to cuss, but didn't feel like wasting the energy.

"Does that thing go in reverse?" Ren asked.

"It's multidirectional," he confirmed.

She glanced over at Siley sportingly. "Let's go."

Siley nodded, thoroughly exhausted but more resolute than ever before. As a pair, they hopped up into the artificial gravity field and drifted back over to the climbing wall.


End file.
